DISNEY PRINCESS BEGINNINGS: Ariel

The newest book in the Disney Princess Beginnings series released today and the focus character is Ariel.

Ariel's sisters are some of my fave Disney characters and I have the original chapter book series featuring them, so I didn't love this book, because they changed the ages and personalities of the sisters from what I've known and loved for years.

I'm consulting Google with the original order, because my memory's a bit fuzzy on some and my books are behind some of my Disney Fairies dolls on my shelf, so they're not easily accessible, but the person who wrote them also knows the personalities from the book series, so I think they're accurate.

So original order: Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella, Alana, Ariel.

Aquata was the leader and Andrina the sporty funny one. Arista is a bit difficult to describe. She loved seahorses in the book. She's maybe the sassy one? A bit bitchy? Attina is the bookworm and the smartest one (and my favorite). She's the most level-headed. Adella is the boy-crazy, vain one, but she's my second fave anyway. Heh. And Alana is the shy, sweet one who loves animals.

That's what I know and love. I know the third movie changed things, which is why, despite my owning it, I've never watched it. I'm guessing this book takes from that third movie instead of the earlier source material (mistake!).

The order in this book is: Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, Andrina, Ariel.

Attina is now the eldest and she seems to have a stick up her fin way more than Aquata ever did. Andrina is still the funny one, but now she's second youngest. Aquata went from leader to the athletic one. Arista seems a little bit the same, and Adella and Alana aren't characterized enough to really say.

I just hate what they turned Attina into. UGH.

Anyway, Ariel, Aquata and Andrina are caught in a rogue wave and have to find their way back home. Ariel summons up the courage to put forth her ideas, even though she's usually intimidated by her older sisters and their level of confidence. A lot of cute stuff happens and I'm just going to let you read it and find out!

I really do love this series and I'm excited for Jasmine, who's up next. It's not the fault of this particular book that Disney stupidly changed the ages and personalities of my beloved mersisters.

DEAR AMERICA: Depression

I was going to pair the Dear America and Dear Canada depression books, but I just finished Minnie's and figured I'd go ahead and review it.

First thing, look at that picture on the cover. If you ever wanted a real life Kit Kittredge, there you go.

Like Kit, Minnie's a young girl during the Great Depression. However, Minnie comes from a much larger and wealthier family. Their house is so large that they've had to close off rooms because they can't afford to heat them all.

Minnie has three older sisters: Gwen, Clem and Lady (Adelaide). Her younger brother is Ozzie. Their father is an accountant. At the beginning of the book, they get a telegram and are surprised to learn an orphan is coming their way. Their cousin Willie Faye arrives the next day by train and she's a teeny little thing, though actually older than Minnie.

Willie Faye is easily the best character in this book and that's saying quite a bit, because every one of the characters is very likeable. Minnie's family is like Kit's. You just love everyone.

The depression hasn't hit the Swifts as badly as other families. They don't have the best food, but they do always eat, and it's probably halfway through the book before the father loses his job. There are plenty of depression stories of bad things happening to other families though.

Minnie's book is very unusual for a DA, because it takes place over just a single month. Minnie writes a lot though, so it's still a sizeable book.

Minnie is one of the few DA girls who got a rerelease book that actually has her art look somewhat like her original photo. Although she looks quite a bit older here!

I'd give this one a high recommend. It's a bit of a whirlwind story, what with taking place over only a month, and the cast is pretty big, but it's a very good read and well worth reading for the character of Willie Faye alone.

DEAR AMERICA: School for the Blind

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall is very good, but it has to be one of the shortest books in this series, which is frustrating, because you want it to continue.

Bess is blinded after running into a tree in a sledding accident. She eventually attends the Perkins School for the Blind, where she learns a lot of useful things, as well as typical school subjects.

The cast of characters is enjoyable and it's interesting learning along with Bess.

The funniest part though is that Bess is set to perform in a play at her school, a play based on one of the author's other Dear America books. I found this quite amusing.

DEAR CANADA: Immigrant in Saskatchewan

I'm pretty sure this was one of the earliest DCs I read. Ivy is still one of my favorites from the series. She is a Character. Her book is pure slice of life and not exactly historical fiction, but she is so fun that rereading this is always a delight. I didn't learn a thing from it, but I loved all the characters so much that it didn't matter. There are no real tragedies in this, just random life in Saskatchewan for a family of English immigrants.

I give it a very high recommendation.

DEAR CANADA: Gold Mountain

Mei-ling's story is quite good. She's in Canada with her father, while her mother and younger brother wait in China. She works hard, both in school and out. She tries to help earn money to bring her family together again in Canada.

Mei-ling's world is small. Most of the scenes take place in just a handful of locations with maybe a dozen characters. But that doesn't mean the book isn't well-written. It very much is! It just doesn't have huge historical elements to it. It's a slice of life for a Chinese immigrant girl in Canada in the early 1900s.

While I didn't learn much from the book, it was still a great read, unlike some of the others that focus less on history.

DEAR AMERICA: Great Migration North

Another one of the good Dear Americas. Color Me Dark is about a family that moves north to Chicago from Tennessee after a member of their family, a black soldier returning home from the war, is murdered. They moved to escape the lynchings and discovered that while some things were better, other things remained the same.

I like the characters in this a lot. Nellie Lee and her sister have a good dynamic.

My only nitpick is a minor one. I actually was convinced this was written by the same author that did Patsy's diary, because Nellie Lee says "Can you imagine?" a lot, which reminded me of Patsy's frequent exclamations of "Imagine that!" It's two different authors though.

Color Me Dark is one of the few that got an HBO short special. I've never seen this one though.

I actually finished this several days ago and am almost done with the next one, so I'll likely review that later tonight. We've got a couple more random topic ones, then we hit the Depression and after that, the Dust Bowl.

DEAR AMERICA & DEAR CANADA: Spanish Flu

Lois Lowry wrote one of my favorite series, the Anastasia Krupnik books. While they're my favorite bits of her writing, Like the Willow Tree is definitely one of the best of the revamped Dear America series additions.

The catalyst of the story is the Spanish flu, which wipes out the main character's parents and infant sister near the beginning of the book. The main character and her older brother are taken in by their maternal uncle and his wife, although the wife is an utter bitch for no reason that's ever explained and the uncle finally gives in to her pressure and takes the children to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community.

The Shaker way of life is interesting and watching Lydia adjust to it is an enjoyable read. There are elements I like, but definitely plenty I don't. Like Lydia, I think the no pets rule is silly, especially because dogs and cats are called "unclean." Now if they had that rule to avoid an animal showing favoritism to one Shaker or another, I could see it, as they're all big on equality there. But unclean? That's a load. I also didn't like that they took her grandmother's ring from her. She even offered to not wear it, just to keep it in a drawer to look at, but they wouldn't allow it, yet she was allowed to keep a box that her brother made. Why one thing and not the other? I don't like their dismissive attitude toward the children's families, as there's nothing wrong with honoring where one came from.

And of course, there's the completely illogical idea of a celibate community. How do you think you're going to continue to grow if you don't create your own new generations? Clearly they didn't think that one through, which is why there only two of them left. Really. Just two people. There were three, but one died earlier this year.

My nitpicks of their society aside, this is a great book. I always prize ones that teach me something and I learned a lot here.

Fiona's Dear Canada book is a little more involved in the flu itself, with it not just flashing by causing devastation like it did in the DA book. Hers also has a lot of family drama. The grandmother character is a grade A bitch. The father actually loved the mother's twin sister, but ended up married to the mother instead, because both he and the sister were being pigheaded idiots. The mother and aunt are one of three sets of twins. The main character and her sister are identical and their older sisters are fraternal. The mother isn't in the book, having died after the birth of the only brother, but the aunt stays on to help the father raise the family. Fiona slowly uncovers their family mystery and the father and aunt get married in the end, which finally drives the godawful grandmother out of the house. So all this is going on after a long lead up, which culminates in the younger set of twins being sent to two different places to escape the Spanish flu. However, Fiona uses her twintuition to realize that something's not right and ends up going home, where she sees her sister has the flu. With Fiona's help, Fanny makes it through, but not long after, one of the older twins catches it and dies. It's after her death that the drama really starts up.

It sounds complicated, but it makes sense as you read it. This is definitely one of the more dramatic DCs though, although not to the level of some of the rerelease DAs.

So with these two, we finally wrap up World War I. I think there were six that centered on the war and the stuff going on at the same time. I'm getting a little break from war with the next nine books, but then we jump into World War II, which has a whopping fourteen books set between 1941 and 1944. And after that, there are only a handful left! This is the last leg of the DA reread.