false 384758 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 384758 10 374489 book 1984 Child of My Heart total:588|5:68|4:194|3:224|2:81|1:21| 588 1971 790 98 7505 3.29 3140 507 13782217 220391 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.37 515 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 4 2 false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sun Jan 27 21:01:48 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 21:08:49 -0800 2008
Narrator: Sheryl Bernstein
Publisher: Macmillan Audio, 2003
Length: 7 hours and 52 min.

Publisher's Summary
In Alice McDermott's new work of fiction a woman recalls her bittersweet 15th summer. The beautiful child of older parents, ra...more...]]> 4741692 24448 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 2 2 false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 13:36:04 -0700 2007 Thu Dec 17 05:49:09 -0800 2009 more...]]> 376286 35329 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 5 2 false Wed Mar 21 20:16:15 -0700 2007 Wed Dec 16 16:56:21 -0800 2009 20867363 1008794 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 5 1 false Sat Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Apr 24 06:20:17 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 06:25:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 23213086 1118065 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 2 1 false Thu May 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 29 07:52:12 -0700 2008 Sat May 31 20:00:19 -0700 2008 more...]]> 46014960 2020300 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 1 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 11 02:44:25 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 03:08:28 -0800 2009
First of all-- TERRIBLE protagonist. McDermott seemed to have missed the part about "showing and not telling" a charact...more...]]> 75604143 1679084 2283313 1559277688 9781559277686 1 http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/22/313/2283313-m-1255660025.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/22/313/2283313-s-1255660025.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2283313.Child_of_My_Heart_A_Novel 3.00 4 Child of My Heart, Alice McDermott's narrator is a 15-year-old girl who has two qualities that give her access to the secret lives of adults: she's beautiful, and she looks after their children. Her beauty has already shaped her life. Her parents have moved the family to the east end of Long Island in hopes of finding her a wealthy husband, or at least a fancy crowd to run with. Here she babysits the children of the rich, whose fathers demonstrate their relative decency by making passes at her, or not. The novel spans a dreamy summer as our heroine spends her days with her various charges at the beach, happily leading her crew on home-grown, rather sweet adventures.
Among the kids she looks after is a toddler whose father is a famous, aging artist. The narrator's preternatural acuity is apparent in this exchange with a new client: "Mrs. Richardson learned by direct inquiry that I lived in that sweet cottage with the dahlias (interested) and went to the academy (more interested) and babysat for this child of the famous artist (most interested) down the road."]]> 1984 3 1 false Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 13:39:08 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 28 13:08:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 46553340 2037606 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 0 0 true Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Mon Feb 16 14:29:21 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 14:30:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 64248228 664910 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 3 0 false Thu Jul 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 12:36:10 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 17:19:59 -0700 2009
Not sure what the point was in that it didn't have much deep thought or suspense yet I still wanted to know how the summer was going to end for the protagonist and her cousin...

There was part of it that really b...more...]]> 19673991 558899 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 4 2 false Mon Apr 07 16:11:17 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 08 18:44:15 -0700 2008 67014804 1880411 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 2 0 false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 18:44:14 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 18:52:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 63610964 574260 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 2 0 false Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 12:02:15 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 18:55:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 72912109 1633396 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 3 0 false Wed Oct 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 12:38:18 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 15:31:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 23087067 987336 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 3 0 false Tue Jul 01 06:17:25 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 18:33:14 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 06:17:25 -0700 2008 To begin with, I was put off by the matter-of-fact manner in which Theresa declares herself to be pretty. I have no tolerance for braggers and, admittedly, not bei...more...]]> 35700882 1266726 840155 0374121230 9780374121235 7 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178817258m/840155.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178817258s/840155.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/840155.Child_of_My_Heart 3.16 44 Child of My Heart, Alice McDermott's narrator is a 15-year-old girl who has two qualities that give her access to the secret lives of adults: she's beautiful, and she looks after their children. Her beauty has already shaped her life. Her parents have moved the family to the east end of Long Island in hopes of finding her a wealthy husband, or at least a fancy crowd to run with. Here she babysits the children of the rich, whose fathers demonstrate their relative decency by making passes at her, or not. The novel spans a dreamy summer as our heroine spends her days with her various charges at the beach, happily leading her crew on home-grown, rather sweet adventures.
Among the kids she looks after is a toddler whose father is a famous, aging artist. The narrator's preternatural acuity is apparent in this exchange with a new client: "Mrs. Richardson learned by direct inquiry that I lived in that sweet cottage with the dahlias (interested) and went to the academy (more interested) and babysat for this child of the famous artist (most interested) down the road." ]]> 1984 2 0 false Fri Mar 28 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sun Oct 19 13:20:17 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 19 13:20:17 -0700 2008
Some reviewers have said that Theresa, the protagonist, comes across as much too wise and smar...more...]]> 63778879 1639350 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 4 0 false Wed Jul 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 15:58:25 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 16:11:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 41269557 1357200 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 4 0 false Tue Dec 30 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 05:49:16 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 05:56:55 -0800 2008
One part I did NOT like, howe...more...]]> 47932747 414836 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 1 0 false Fri Feb 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 16:39:15 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 16:43:09 -0800 2009 more...]]> 68373347 856804 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 3 0 false Mon Aug 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 14:13:44 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 08:00:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 43657814 1924514 384758 0312422911 9780312422912 88 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660m/384758.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174350660s/384758.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/384758.Child_of_My_Heart 3.35 588 Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.

The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
]]> 1984 3 0 false Mon Jan 19 20:16:26 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 20:16:26 -0800 2009 more...]]> 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=384758