Dog- Eared Page: Emily of Deep Valley

Monday, November 14, 2016



At church the next day, Dr. MacDonald said something that helped her. Emily's mind kept drifting away from the sermon to last night's fun. But suddenly this sentence flashed out- it was a quotation from Shakespeare, she thought:

'Muster your wits; stand in your own defense."

She had no idea in what sense he had used it, but it seemed to be a message aimed directly at her.

"Must your wits; stand in your own defense," she kept repeating to herself on the long walk home. After dinner she sat down in her rocker, looked out at the snow and proceeded to muster her wits.

"I'm going to fill my winter and I'm going to fill it with something worth while," she resolved.

-Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace

5 comments

  1. I love that last line! That's going to be my theme this winter :)

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    1. If the last line really struck you, you would love this whole book (I kind of think this is a pivotal scene, though more context adds to the impact) because to me, it is sort of a coming of age novel, but it is more so in the sense of finding oneself after becoming and adult, legally. It also is a beautiful example of fighting against depression, I think.

      Well, and anything Maud Hart Lovelace is a quick and delightful read!

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  2. We watched "You've Got Mail" last night, and I didn't remember that the heroine tells a kid about the Betsy-Tacy books :)
    This one sounds wonderful too. Are you working on your children's books collection?

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    1. Yay for You've Got Mail. Funny story about that line- the Besty-Tacy books were actually out of print at the time, but the movie studio let the publishing company know they would be mentioning the books and adviced them to think about a reprint (which they did for all but 3 of Lovelace's "Deep Valley" books. The 3 they didn't republish included this one, but it was reprinted a few years ago and you can still purchase it. I think you'd like Emily of Deep Valley, actually. She seems much more relatable to me than Betsy was... more quiet. Its a pretty great story about becoming an adult and also about dealing with negative emotions.)

      You know, I WANT to be working on our children's book collection, but we haven't gotten much yet- at least the picture book kind anyway (I have a lot of classics that I currently have in my classroom but that I bought myself. Some might come back home....) We have only a few picture books and the one you sent. My coworkers are throwing a baby shower for us though. A bunch of teachers.... somehow I think I'll be getting some books ;)

      We will probably purchase some more in January. Interestingly, for the first few months, it doesn't matter what you read to them, so long as you do (for oral language acquisition). My mom read mystery novels to me, apparently. Still, it can be good to read children's books to babies, even very young, because then they always have that habit and can see the pictures etc.

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  3. So sweet! In the movie, I think I imagined her bookstore including out of print books. But encouraging a reprint with a movie is so sweet!

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