WINDING VALLEY FARM: Annie's Story

by Anne Pellowski ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 18, 1982

Continuing her series on Polish-American farm life in Wisconsin, Pellowski focuses here on Annie, who is six in 1908, the fourth of seven children. Once more the episodes reflect the old-fashioned comforts of family life, the hard work that everyone willingly accepts, and the simple but often mischievous fun the children make for themselves. The mischief is mostly on the boys' part--as when Annie's brothers and others race their family buggies at an 80-year-old's birthday party on a nearby farm, or when all the boys in the rural Catholic school conspire to let bumblebees loose in class. But Annie herself is to blame when her brother accidentally chops off the tip of her finger (the brothers get a licking for allowing her near the chopping), and many episodes end with Annie struggling to do the right thing, or musing on such moral issues as the right of finders-keepers or the conflict between telling-the-truth and not-tattling. Annie's chief fear, an unnecessary one, is that her parents will sell the farm. There are tears and laughter when Pa gets drunk from cleaning out a whiskey barrel for Ma's sauerkraut and Ma, pregnant, must cope with more work than ever; and there are the usual farm-chore details--learning to use the cabbage shredder, marveling at the new mechanical hay-loader--to content devotees of the genre.

Pub Date: June 18, 1982

ISBN: 1932350292

Page Count: -

Publisher: Philomel

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1982

Categories: FICTION