Skip to main content

ANTIQUE ADVENTURES | EDDIE & GARDENIA BY CAROLYN HAYWOOD

EDDIE & GARDENIA

★★★★★
I found a 1960s copy of this on a recent thrift store trip and was initially curious about it because 1) I'm always a little curious about old books in shops and 2) gardenias are my favorite flower. So happy I took a gamble on it because this story is seriously adorable!

 Eddie is a little boy who has a pet goat named Gardenia. As much as he loves her, she is a handful! Gardenia really does it one day when she chews up the cloth roof on Eddie's dad's new Buick. Fed up with all the recent damages, Eddie's dad lays down the law and says the goat has to go. He suggests that Eddie write to Uncle Ed in Texas and see if he'll let Gardenia live on his ranch there. Eddie writes this letter and waits. Not only does Uncle Ed agree to take on the goat but he also invites Eddie out for a few months to live on the ranch and visit with his cousin Georgie.


But the trip doesn't turn out to be as straightforward as you'd think. Eddie travels with Gardenia to Texas by train, but en route the goat manages to free a flock of chickens AND ends up getting moved to the wrong truck, nearly ending the story before it's begun. Luckily, Uncle Ed swoops in in time and sorts things out. But even at the ranch, getting Gardenia acclimated is more of a process than anyone anticipated.

 It's a charming story full of humor and love of family and nature, just the sweet journeys of Gardenia trying to live her best goat life. There are some dramatic moments, but nothing too violent or scary. This story would also serve as a good primer for young readers as far as introducing them to ranching terminology and lifestyle customs.


Now, to track down the rest of the books in the series! 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HISTORY IMAGINED | A HEART ADRIFT by Laura Frantz

  It is 1755, and the threat of war with France looms over colonial York, Virginia. Chocolatier Esmée Shaw is fighting her own battle of the heart. Having reached her twenty-eighth birthday, she is reconciled to life alone after a decade-old failed love affair from which she's never quite recovered. But she longs to find something worthwhile to do with her life.  Captain Henri Lennox has returned to port after a lengthy absence, intent on completing the lighthouse in the dangerous Chesapeake Bay, a dream he once shared with Esmée. But when the colonial government asks him to lead a secret naval expedition against the French, his future is plunged into uncertainty.  Will a war and a cache of regrets keep them apart, or can their shared vision and dedication to the colonial cause heal the wounds of the past? ★ ★ ★1/2 1755 in Virginia --- As the Revolutionary War revs up, twenty-eight year old chocolatier Esmee Shaw is in her hometown of York, settling into assumed spinsterh...
Post a Comment
Read more

READING THE MOVIE | JULIE & JULIA BY JULIE POWELL

This is a memoir of sorts written by blogger Julie Powell, who at the time of writing, was working as a secretary for a 9/11 government agency in New York City. She makes it clear in the book that she is limited about how much she can talk about her employer, as far as specifics, but that much she does divulge. She's not all that satisfied with her job (who hasn't been there!), lamenting her dissatisfaction to her husband. She goes on about the grief of turning 30 and wondering where her life's going, trying to figure out what her real goals in life are. His response is an idea to take her love of cooking and Julia Child and make a blog out of it. Julie then runs with the idea and decides to start a year-long project in which she cooks her way through all the recipes in Child's  Mastering The Art Of French Cooking , blogging about her results. The book turns out to be more about what Julie learns about herself in the process than the recipes themselves, which is ofte...
Post a Comment
Read more

SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE (RESTORING HERITAGE #3) BY TARI FARIS

  Leah Williams is back in the quaint town of Heritage, Michigan, and ready to try again to make her business a success. But blank slates are hard to come by, and a piece of her past is waiting for her there. Heir to the Heritage Fruits company, Jonathan Kensington is the guy who not only made Leah's past difficult, he also seems determined to complicate her present as well. Jon is trying to prove to the Heritage Fruits board that he, not his manipulative uncle, should be running the business. The board insists Jon find a new owner for the building that will house Leah's business. To avoid forcing a buyout of Leah's part of the building, Jon strikes a compromise with Leah, and the two go into business together. With her vision and his know-how, it might work. And Leah might realize he's loved her since high school. If only he didn't keep on shooting himself in the foot by boxing her out of important decisions. Sparks fly in this romantic story of two people who must...
Post a Comment
Read more