Ursula NordstromCritiques

Sweet book! I enjoyed the characters and loved watching them grow. Good writer!

Fascinating collection of this prominent editor's letters, mostly to her authors and colleagues about their writing/illustrating/publishing projects. Funny, supportive, acerbic, delightful, and offering a lot of insight into the publishing world of the time.

I have fond memories of snitching this book from my sister's room, just so I could read it, yet again. And as an adult read, it's pretty good.

Vicky is 8, shy, and terribly homesick as a new student at boarding school. But she is drawn to Martha, incorrigible, sassy Martha. The two opposites attract and become best friends.

The author has painted a simple yet somewhat realistic picture of boarding school and life, some 60 years ago. The girls' flights of fancy and silliness are fun to read, too.

I very much enjoyed getting this exclusive peek at the selection of the Ursula Nordstrom's letters to so many wonderful authors of children's books. Although, being without replies, it resembled a long monologue, I thought each letter had been well-put into context by ample footnotes. For even more detail, the internet was as always very useful, and I had a feeling like I was doing my own little research, lerning more about Ursula Nordstrom, but at the same time also about everyone else she was in contact with, and of course also the times when this was happening. Her letters make me think she was not a wonderful person and someone one would love to have around, as a friend, or even as an editor, but also somone with a good dose of genius in herself.

I just reread this because it’s the July book for the A Thrilling Term at Goodreads: The Girls’ School-Story Group. I can’t believe that it’s been nearly 50 years since I first read this book, this very copy I just reread, a hardcover edition priced at $2.95. This was my very first “school story” book, and it’s unusual in that the children are much younger than in most of the other boarding school books that I’ve read.

When I was young, I didn’t like the way the girls were scolded; I thought the (first) housemother was too stern. But, I also thought the way they were treated and the whole setting was unappealing except for their friendship.

This book is well written and it held up extraordinarily well reading it as an adult, much better than I’d expected. Given that I read it only a few times between the ages of 7 and 9, I was surprised by how much I remembered, down to many specific lines and passages. I read it with quite a different perspective than I did as a child, of course. Actually, I am probably more impressed with it now than I was then.

I really love the illustrations. They’re precious, in a good way, not in an “ick-en-spick” (one of only three words in the secret “language” in the book) way.

Some things that really struck me now: the wonderful (though not without its problems, which are addressed) sister like friendship between Victoria and Martha, the sending of such young children to a boarding school: Victoria from age 8 and Martha from age 6, and also what a different, more innocent time it was back in 1960 when this book was first published: these two eight year old girls befriending and receiving help, in a semi-secret way, from the school’s handyman, with no hint of or fear of impropriety.

I felt both melancholy and amused when reading this, and it was really fun to revisit it. I’m so glad I decided to reread it and I’m grateful to the A Thrilling Term At Goodreads… group for reconnecting me with what I consider to be my first school story.

This is certainly a ‘leebossa” book, my favorite of the three “secret language” words.

I just found out from Goodreads friend Constance that the author wrote then burned a sequel. I would have loved to read a sequel to this, if it had been done well.

What I liked about this collection of letters is the way UN's wry wit was always in evidence. It was fun to read some of the letters to authors I know and love.

What I didn't like was the lack of context, the disconnected nature of only getting one side of the conversation.

What drove me crazy is maybe only something I don't understand, perhaps some scholarly convention- but I found it maddening that the editor assigned "short" names to some of the authors as if he would be referring to them by these compressed names but then continued to use the whole name, followed by the shortened version in parentheses throughout.

In summation I see the merit of a book of letters but I'd have been much, much happier with a biography.

One of the most influential children's book editors of the twentieth century, Ursula Nordstrom oversaw the publication of such classics as Charlotte's Web and Where the Wild Things Are, but this middle-grade novel, about a young girl and her experiences away at boarding school, is the only work of her own to be published (apparently there was a sequel, but Nordstrom burnt it).

The story of Victoria North, sent to the Coburn Home School when her mother's (rather vague) work situation interferes with her ability to care for her daughter, it follows the unhappy young girl as she reluctantly adjusts to life away from home. Befriended by the rebellious Martha Sherman, who fiercely maintains that this will be her last year at Coburn (a claim she makes each year), Victoria is soon initiated into the "secret language," and involved in adventures large and small with her new boon companion.

Given my love of linguistics and sympathy for the idea of created childhood languages (I had one myself, complete with its own writing system), my interest in the girls' school-story genre, of which this an atypical American example, and my respect for Nordstrom's influential career, I really expected to love The Secret Language, especially as a number of goodreads friends list it as a childhood favorite. Perhaps my reading was sabotaged by such high expectations, but although I found the book moderately engaging, I simply wasn't that impressed. There just wasn't enough here to satisfy, and I found myself wishing that Nordstrom had told us more about the school - Victoria and Martha's classes, their activities - and (especially!) about the secret language. I wanted to learn more than three words! I wonder if Nordstrom herself, as an editor, saw the weaknesses here, and that was why she burned the sequel?

Eight-year-old Vicky goes to live at a boarding school where she is miserable until she gets to know Martha, a different girl with a secret language.

Ursula Nordstrom (b. 1910) was a children's book editor at Harper & Row; later she was Harper's first female vice president. She became an editor (1940) at a time when there were few women editors in book publishing. She was a hugely important figure in the history of book publishing--the children's literature's Maxwell Perkins. She was quite the personality, and from what I can tell this book does her justice.

I first read this book when I was a pre-teen. I loved it! For a child with 3 siblings, nothing sounded more exciting than going away to a boarding school. And being a girl, I was already all in to the "best friend" special relationship. Highly recommended. I gave to my daughter around age 9-10 and she, too, loved it. She is now a grown woman with a copy on her library shelf as well. A treasure.

gift from Elinor Nakis

Keylyn Rayla wanted me to read--said it reminded her of the Secret Garden.