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Jack Minot and Janey Pecq are next-door neighbors and best friends so frequently seen together that Janey earns the nickname Jill after the rhyme "Jack and Jill". Unfortunately, the sweet moniker proves prophetic when a wintry day spent sledding ends in a terrible fall that leaves both young people seriously injured. While Jack's head wound leaves him fragile for a few weeks, Jill's damaged back keeps her bedridden for months and with limited mobility afterward. Their mothers and friends do their best to make time pass more quickly with songs, elaborately costumed tableaus, and frequent visits. Even as petty jealousy, dreams deferred, and growing pains challenge the friend group, Jack and Jill ultimately grow stronger and closer together in this charming coming-of-age tale.… (more)
User reviews
It was definitely more full of those glurgey Victorianisms (wholesome and pure!) than I remember, but when I was younger I just
I still can't quite tell if she's being serious with some of the moralizing. I want to think she wrote books like this to pay the rent and actually preferred the "sensational" stories that were supposedly shameful. However, I can't really be bothered to read a bunch of scholarship on the subject.
Subtitled 'a village story', it's mostly gentle, with a fair amount of authorial intrusion, some of it rather preachy, at least to modern ears, and a bit much even given the date and genre. Unlikely to appeal to most modern children or teenagers, it's nonetheless a pleasant piece of social history, and I'd recommend it in a low-key sort of way to anyone who enjoys books such as Louisa M Alcott's better-known 'Little Women' series.
Too good to be true Sentimentality, baby talk, and heavy handed Temperance at all costs sometimes gets in the way of enjoying the high spirits,
joy of making dangerous choices, and sheer fun of friendships.
Lovely gems, like "...found it easier to feel love and gratitude than to put them into verse" make for good introspective reading.
Death gets tossed in as yet another lesson.