Product Description

"Historical fiction buffs, especially those interested in the women’s suffrage movement, will enjoy sharing the eye-opening experiences of Mable Riley." — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

It’s the year 1901, and fourteen-year-old aspiring writer Mable Riley is on her way to fulfilling her dreams, or so she hopes. After moving with her sister to a faraway town, Mable meets a real writer, one who wears daring fashions, unnerves the townsfolk by sharing her opinions, and has a few shocking secrets as well. Designed as a vintage journal, MABLE RILEY follows a feisty girl as she finds her own voice in a time when women struggled for independence — a charmingly told tale that is as funny as it is inspiring.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1363400 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-13
• Released on: 2007-02-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8--Set in Canada in 1901, this gentle tale relates the adventures of a 14-year-old who accompanies her older sister to the small town where she has been hired as a teacher. Mable discovers that very little happens in Sellerton, other than her frequent spats with her sister. Most of her days are spent assisting Viola at school and doing chores on the farm where they are boarding. Her only release is found in her journal entries or in spinning her fantasies into stories that she includes in letters to a friend back home. Wanting to have someone with whom to share her feelings and desires, Mable turns to a town outcast, an eccentric woman who leads a secret group of suffragettes. As she learns more about the injustices carried out in this small rural town, she ignores her sister's warnings and puts herself in the midst of a strike at the local cheese factory. Presented in diary format, this novel is a delightful elixir of Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Avonlea and makes a wonderful introduction to journal-style writing. Although the pace is somewhat slow, the ending is dramatic and satisfying.--Kimberly Monaghan, formerly at Vernon Area Public Library, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 5-10. When 14-year-old Mable leaves home in 1901 with her older sister, who becomes a teacher in Stratford, Ontario, she keeps a diary of "humdrum" daily life; she also writes a wry, romantic adventure to entertain herself. Of course, the two works comment on each other, and some kids may end up skipping the made-up romance as Mable finds drama in "real life" not only in her first kiss but also in the exciting struggle of the suffragist movement. Mable makes friends with Mrs. Rattle, a neighbor who dares to wear bloomers, ride a bike, and live without a man. She invites Mable to a Readers' Club that is really a front for political action that climaxes when women in the local cheese factory strike against their appalling working conditions. The message is never strident because the funny, poignant diary entries show family and neighbors without reverence, especially the mentor-troublemaker, who refuses to know "her place" and teaches Mable to risk censure, even prison, rather than settle for something less than what she wants and what is right. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Mable Riley is absolutely charming. Her journal is funny, compassionate, and rich in detail about the everyday lives, the dreams, and the courage of ordinary people. I loved meeting Mable." — Karen Cushman, author of THE MIDWIFE'S APPRENTICE, winner of the 1996 Newbery Medal, and CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY, a 1995 Newbery Honor Book — Karen Cushman, author of THE MIDWIFE'S APPRENTICE, winner of the 1996 Newbery Medal, and CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY, a 1995 Newbery Honor Book

"Mable Riley is the best of everyday heroines-imaginative and funny, a thinker and a dreamer. Readers will laugh out loud at her Anne-of-Green-Gables hijinks, and cheer her independent thinking all the way." — Megan McDonald, author of the best-selling Judy Moody series — Megan McDonald, author of the best-selling Judy Moody series

"Three cheers for Mable Riley and a hurrah for author Marthe Jocelyn. . . . Mable is a force, albeit a very humorous one. . . . Readers will delight in and applaud Mable finding her voice ‘singing like rain and hollering like thunder.’" — Ken Setterington, Children and Youth Advocate for Library Services, Toronto Public Library and co-author of A GUIDE TO CANADIAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS — Ken Setterington, Children and Youth Advocate for Library Services, Toronto Public Library and co-author of A GUIDE TO CANADIAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS

"[A] wry, perceptive novel . . . As an aspiring writer, tart, determined Mable Riley rarely wants for words, and her love of the grand gesture — and the truth — mark her as a heroine readers will surely take to heart." — Leonard Marcus, author of MARGARET WISE BROWN: AWAKENED BY THE MOON — Leonard Marcus, author of MARGARET WISE BROWN: AWAKENED BY THE MOON

Customer Reviews

Mable Ri;ey
1901, Stratford, Ontario. Mable Riley has been sent off with her sister, Viola, to accompany her to her first teaching post. Mable hopes for excitement and romance, and despite the drag of daily chores and sibling rivalry, finds adventure when she befriends the eccentric Mrs. Rattle and her Ladies Reading Society. For bloomer-clad Mrs. Rattle is a real writer and her reading group are actually (gasp!) suffragists! Women's rights, a mill strike, and Mable's first kiss are all told through Mable's diary, letters home, and the poems she writes for Viola's classes. Comparisons to Anne of Green Gables are inevitable and deserved. Fun, irreverent, and anything but didactic.