Ellen MacGregorCritiques

This is a fun little book. It is a bit dated but the boys loved it.

Fun to read, and my son loved it (he said 5 stars). Written a few years before anyone actually landed in the moon, and very predictable, but still fun.

So dated! But my 7 year old enjoyed it anyway, although several times I had to stop and explain how the science in the book was inaccurate.

NA

That was a blast from the past

That was a blast from the past

Miss Pickerell is taking her identical twin nephews and her cow to the city to visit the circus and the Atomic Energy Museum. They are traveling downstream in a steam boat and Miss Pickerell is rather put out because the cow was put in the hold with a bunch or annoying rocks. The rocks were ballast. But, when the owner of the boat found that there was a cow aboard, he put into shore and dumped Miss Pickerell and the cow off in a small village. There's an atomic energy research facility near by. Also, the town sherif is trying to prospect for uranium. Miss Pickerell gets involved with both, the sheriff and the research facility, and eventually figures out that there were stores of uranium back in the mountain near where she lives (the source of the steam boat's ballast).

So, we learn all about atomic energy, radioactive decay, how geiger counters work, cosmic ray background radiation, radio-carbon dating, and so forth. A fun way to (re)learn some science.

Given that the book came out in 1953, views favoring atomic energy were pretty highly boosted. Those old atoms were to power our future. We know these days that nuclear power is not so easy. The safety issues are much more difficult and expensive to deal with than we'd imagined back in the olden days (the real problem primarily is waste disposal, I believe, and no one wants to pay for that, neither the profiteers nor the taxpayers).

But, none-the-less, knowing about basic scientific issues is always a good thing. Even if some of the political and economic issues change, the basic science remains steadfast. We've become rather an anti-science society, which doesn't bode well for our futures. It fair boggles my mind that we had well over a dozen people running for President a few months ago, none of whom had even a vague clue about the nature of science. They all seemed to think scientific investigation is merely a matter of opinion. It seems that a good place for those ignoramuses to begin to understand the nature of scientific investigation would be some Miss Pickerell.

After Sylvia Plath, I needed something that wouldn't tax my emotions. What better thing to read than a novella (19,430 words, I counted them) written for children, wherein the main character has a pet cow and we are treated to some gentle science lessons?

Miss Pickerell is a spinster who lives alone on a small, isolated farm with her pet cow and her prize rock collection. She's happy and content to be away from people and noise. But, once a year, she spends a month with her seven nieces and nephews in the city. It just about drives her bats. They all chatter endlessly. On the other hand, she will admit to having learned rather a lot from their chatter.

Anyway, after visiting them, she arrives home to her peace and quiet, only to find that someone has been in her house. Worse, she finds that there's a giant construction in her pasture. She climbs up the construction to give the people inside a piece of her mind, and the next things she knows, the doors close, there are some explosions, she passes out. When she regains consciousness, she finds she's in a rocket ship headed for Mars.

She has a few adventures on the way to Mars and back. Also, we get some gentle lessons about gravity and its effects. Rather a nice respite from depression and suicide.

Oh how charming! This is the kind of Miss Pickerell book I loved as a child. Sure, nowadays interested kids know all about radar vs sonar, starboard, the bends, coral formed by skeletons, etc. - but back in the day this was a great way to learn stuff and feel smart. And what a role model! She's just a quiet country Auntie, but give her enough motivation and she'll go to Mars, mountain-climbing, or undersea!

Definitely not scientifically accurate, but fun nonetheless. The kids and I enjoyed it.

I think this was the first Miss Pickerell I read, and my favorite. After 50 years I still remember how it seemed the bad guys had claimed salvage rights on a wreck, but because Miss Pickerell had retrieved a wristwatch from the wreck for a friend, that counted as salvage and the good guys got the wreck. Even in my youth I appreciated neat points of law.

A late Miss Pickerell --the latest I have, in which she must go up and fix a weather satellite.

A late follow-up to the Miss PIckerell series, based on the moon program. Not one I loved as a child.

I think this may be the first of the series I read. I know it introduced me to the concept of a Geiger counter -- thereby performing the science education aspect of this series. Miss pIckerell goes prospecting for uranium --a more morally acceptable activity to most people ten than later.

As a child, I enjoyed this series about an indomitable maiden lady type having adventures based on what was cutting edge science at the time. Somehow I remember this one less than some of te more dramatic ones (Miss Pickerell Goes Underasea, Miss PIckerell Goes to Mars)

The thing I love about Miss Pickerell stories is that the author tries to be as scientifically accurate as possible - within the framework of a highly unlikely plot.

This book was written in 1965 (by another author from Macgregor's copious notes after her death), but sticks closely to the scientific facts as known at the time. Miss Pickerell likes to read the encyclopedia, so she can include all sorts of tidbits about pressurized cabins, low-g movements, solar storms, and lots more. The series really does try to be fun and educational.

Of course, a large part of the plot - spores discovered on the moon that may or may not cure a disastrous illness among the animals of Square Toe County - is silly, but that's where the fun comes in.½

This book shocked me by being *actually reality based*.

Okay, yes, the basic premise of "little old lady who has frighteningly close relationship to her cow find scientists building moon rocket in her pasture and accidentally stows away" requires deep, deep suspension of disbelief. But once she actually gets on the rocket, the science is all *good* science. Written for about a third-grade level, so very simplified, but despite the 1951 publication date, there's nothing that makes me want to write corrections in the margin. And in fact this would serve as a very good primer on space travel: more accurate than some *textbooks* I've encountered. But not too preachy or teachy, and the character of Miss Pickerell shines over all.

It's very ... something ... when the part of the story that takes place on Earth is the fantastic part, but that's the 1950s for you. (And why I adore old-fashioned YA SF. As much as I like modern SF, what happened to a story where you could have a line like "Wouldn't work," Mr. Killian said, "On account of the orbits. You know about orbits?"½

From 1965 vintage scholastic cover:

Miss Pickerell was mighty glad to be home from her vacation. She had had an overdose of noise and confusion. As she led her cow out to graze behind her little house she thought happily about the rest they were both going to have. But suddenly she saw, right in the middle of the pasture, the strangest, largest contraption she had ever laid eyes on. She was very frightened, but this was a clear case of trespassing. Miss Pickerell didn't hesitate. She went right up to investigate the outrage.

What happens after that is more than she bargains for. It is a question who is most surprised: Miss Pickerell or the captain and the crew!

This is science fiction only sort of!! (What a terrible sentence for a former English teacher!) Actually, it's a light-hearted romp about a little old lady who accidentally gets on board a rocket she found in her pasture. There is some science, the book jacket makes clear, but of the 1951 variety.