A small island village and a stern grandmother who slaps greet Inge Maria when she has to leaave her beloved Copenhagen at the age of ten. The sleepy town is filled with rules. It's 1911.
When Inge Maria's trunk arrives, her grandmother orders her to pick only five of her dear possessions to keep. That's all their small house can hold. It seems life has lost its hum and its juice. Everyone on the island is old and stiff and stern.
But as Inge Maria begins to settle in her natural energy and curiosity turn the island upside down and bring it back to life again. Smiles start showing up...
Turns out that even in the pain of loss you will never lose your self.
Keyword: Denmark
9780544534322 179 pages Ages 7-10
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
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From the publisher:
In the tradition of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES and PIPPI LONGSTOCKING comes a heart-warming novel about love, family, grief, joy and the power of laughter and imagination.
When Inge Maria arrives on the tiny island of Bornholm in Denmark to live with her grandmother, she's not sure what to expect. Her grandmother is stern, the people on the island are strange, and children are supposed to be seen and not heard. But no matter how hard Inge tries to be good, mischief has a way of finding her. Could it be that a bit of mischief is exactly what Grandmother and the people of Bornholm need?
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From the Library of Congress:
- In 1911, when orphaned ten-year-old Inge comes to live with her stern grandmother in a remote island village in Bornholm, Denmark, she ends up changing the climate of the town, bringing joy and laughter to her grandmother's life and finding a new family for herself to help assuage her grief over losing her mother.
