Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

Lenski, L. (2011). Strawberry girl (e-book).

Birdie moves to Florida with her family to build a farm, battling weather and neighbors opposing fences.  With work and neighborly effort, Birdie’s family finally makes the strawberry crop into profits and settles things with the neighbors.  The book contains descriptions of poor choices between the neighbors and the parents, as well as the strong dialect of the day.  

In Strawberry Girl, Lois Lensky painted a detailed picture of the lives of Floridians in the middle 1900’s.  It is astonishing to realize that not so many years ago, people were still speaking so poorly and education level so low in so many areas of the United States.  While the story accurately depicts the time, the dialect may cause many younger readers to stumble loosing much of the story.  This is an excellent read-aloud and better for later elementary due to the feud and the dialect.  The e-book contains an illustrated biography of Lenski.

Received Galley from NetGalley.com