CHRISTMAS AFTER ALL

Minnie Swift is 11 years old in 1932 and the Great Depression has hit Indianapolis very hard. In the diary format that characterizes this series, Minnie records the daily life of her family, with all the anxieties over money and work, the makeshifts and the make-dos, the food made to go further by stretching it out with flour and cheese, and the curtains made from old dresses. All is not sadness, though, since Minnie, her siblings, and their orphaned cousin manage to find comic moments and fun despite their worries. There is an African-American maid whose ingenuity is important to the family’s well-being, and who comes to work every day for no pay except for food and old clothes—surely, many readers will find this, if not disturbing, at least unlikely. Also unlikely is the implausible (and very sudden) happy ending that could have come right out of a 1930s “picture-show,” when the absent father reappears, successful and prosperous, just in time to end the book with a very happy Christmas for all. As in some others of the “Dear America” series, it seems as if every historical phenomenon, every fashion, every fad, every happening that could possibly be associated with the period has been crammed into this one book. But the historical detail is both accurate and interesting, as is the historical appendix containing information and photographs of the period. (Fiction. 9-11)