Mildred Keith

Mildred Keith #1

by Martha Finley

Before Martha Finley had completed the first six titles of The Elsie Books in 1876, she began a new series based upon the Dinsmore's Midwestern relatives, the Keiths. The resulting seven-book series, The Mildred Series, introduces Mildred Keith, their sixteen-year-old daughter. Her father, a lawyer by trade, had moved with his wife and eight children from Ohio to the frontier of Indiana in the 1830s (not unlike Martha Finley's identical journey as a girl with her family). At the end of the first book, Mildred becomes very ill with a fever and is slow to recover. Arthur Dinsmore Sr., Elsie's grandfather, travels from Roselands, his home in the East, to visit the Keiths. While there, he suggests that the southern climate at Roselands may be beneficial to Mildred's health. This is followed by the death of Elsie's guardian in Louisiana. Mildred travels with Arthur Dinsmore to visit Elsie at Viamede. In this way, The Mildred Books fill the reader in on some of the events of Elsie's early childhood before the Elsie series opens. Martha Finley has woven the characters of the two series in and out of her stories to fill in some of the sequential gaps in the plot lines of her early Elsie stories and to provide some further depth to her characters and their relationships with one another. In this way she enriches the Elsie stories that have thrilled girls for more than 130 years. Sixteen-year-old Mildred moves with her father, mother, and seven brothers and sisters from their home in Ohio to the frontier of Indiana, and Mildred's maiden aunt, Wealthy Stanhope, travels west with them. Horace Dinsmore, Elsie's father, pays a visit to his cousin, Marcia Keith, and her family in Indianabefore departing on a long trip to Europe, and sadly, the entire Keith family is stricken with ague.

Genres: Christian Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Christian, Historical, Historical Fiction

286 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1996

About the author

Martha Finley was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. Finley wrote many of her books under the pseudonym Martha Farquharson.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_F... or, http://marthafinley.wordpress.com/

Reviews

[Bridget Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book isn't perfect and probably doesn't deserve five stars, but I'm giving them anyway simply because this book delighted me so. Because yes, I was grinning in utter DELIGHT over this thing. I grew up on the Elsie series and have longed to read the Mildred series for YEARS.

Some things that I loved:

- Aunt Wealthy Stanhope!!! I didn't expect to find this hilarious, adorable little lady from the Elsie series in these pages!

- The Keith family is basically a cross between the Travilla family and the Allison family. Which is pretty awesome.

- The Keiths are POOR! At the very least, they're not exceedingly rich. *coughs*

- Simply returning to the world of Martha Finley, but with a fresh setting and cast of characters! AHHHHHHHHH.

- Mildred as a protagonist. She isn't perfect, but she also isn't a Lulu.

- On a more personal note, I found that I could relate very much to the circumstances that the Keiths found themselves in. From uprooting from their comfortable home and moving far away to a foreign land, to the folks of Pleasant Plains' first impressions of the Keiths, to that feeling of utter dismay when the Keiths first see what their new accommodations will be. (Spoiler: it was a dirty old warehouse.)

- I also (unfortunately) could relate on a deep level to when the whole family--excepting Mildred--came down with a fever. *long, weary sigh*


And some things I didn't love:

- A few comments that were quite racist, as well as a strong importance laid on the distinction between social classes. But, ya know, this is 1830s America that we're talking about...

- At times Mrs. Keith felt like a clone of Elsie.

- The ending was veryyyy abrupt. Literally in the LAST CHAPTER, a young man rushes into the Keiths' sick household and offers to aid the exhausted and overwhelmed Mildred in nursing the sick. I think this young man's name had been mentioned at some point earlier in the book, but I DID NOT REMEMBER HIM. He just suddenly appears, helps Mildred in caring for her family, and "after a fortnight," their glances hold something that's slightly more than mere affection. THE END. Whaaa...??!?! I guess that was supposed to be a cliffhanger for the next book?


Overall, I adored this book and I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE. (I mightttt have even liked it better than the Elsie books ... but that's a hard call to make. And I can't betray the dear Elsie books after all these years of so bravely defending them against the critics' assaults! :P)

[Caity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mildred Keith was a really sweet story about family loyalty, and trusting God through change- that He will work everything out for good. I enjoy that Martha Finley uses more dialogue than narration- and her stories are always spiritually uplifting. The story was the perfect length- not too long, but nothing rushed. I'm looking forward to reading Mildred at Roselands. :)

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Randomly decided to finally finish this today. I'm sorry, but give me the new revised version of this series, people...with third person LIMITED point of view. I can't stand omniscient. And for the record? I like Millie better than Mildred.

[aMandalin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never read this book before but since I love love love the Elsie Dinsmore series I wanted to try it. At first I had a hard time getting into it because I was mentally comparing the characters to Elsie and the characters in that series. However, due to the characters’ vocabulary and behavior, I perceived this was definitely in a different time of history. Once I got that figured out, I enjoyed the book more. Then the plot got much more twisty and interesting and I really enjoyed the book! Would definitely recommend.

[Abigail Rasmussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book when I was 15 years old along with the second and third books in the series.

Note: I have not read any of the books from the revised edition series so I can't say whether or not I recommend them.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the entire series! Ofcourse, I mean the unabridged versions.

[Judith Tepe · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a surprise. I found this book on my brother's shelf and just picked it up to read. I didn't realize that it was part of a series. Very, very nice.

[Liv 🥰 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked Elsie Dinsmore better than Mildred Keith. I even liked The Life of Faith versions of these books better than this book. I don't know what it is about it, I just didn't like it nearly as much as the other Martha Finley and adapted novels.

I haven't read any of the other books in the Mildred Keith series, but I've read the first six of Life of Faith that my church library stocks.

This particular book just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I will read the next books in the series, but I probably won't read them again, and if anybody asks, I wouldn't recommend them.

I know they were beloved, but Mildred just wasn't my favourite of MF book at all. I was really disappointed, because I thought it would be good. It wasn't very good, and I'm sad because I had my hopes pretty high for his one.

When I really just skim the plot, this book wasn't terrible. But it's not something I will want to read again.

[Alyssa Skinner · Rating 2 out of 5]

The children in this book just aren't believable. A little boy tells his sister something silly about them having to live in a wigwam when they move or something, and his mother chews him out for lying, and tells him (if I remember correctly) that she would rather he be hanged than be a liar? (I really hope that I'm remembering that part incorrectly, because that seems like a very dramatic response to a little boy teasing his sister!) And then, the same little boy, who is ten, I think, gives her a flowery speech about never doing it again? And that's just a sample of the way that conversations in this book go. I couldn't stomach it.

[Dorry Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 1st book on Mildred Keith by Martha Finley I have read, but I have read several on Elsie Dinsmore, other books she wrote. I love her writing which most were written in the 1870s and later.
They are about young people but there is much to learn about that time of life.
The book I read was written in 1876.

[Emily Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

People complain about Elsie being a cry baby in her books. Millie is perhaps worse imo, especially since she was shown to be quite mature for her age in the modern day adaptions. Overall though, the book was pretty good.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A trip into the past.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The life and times of the Keith family, in particular their eldest daughter, Mildred, as they move from their cozy home and life in Ohio to the middle of nowhere Indiana.

I know I've read this book before, but it has been so long, and several of the characters also appear in Ms. Finley's Elsie Dinsmore books, so I had actually forgotten all of this story! It feels very much like a mash up of Alcott's Little Women and Ingals-Wilder's Little House books, which makes a lot of sense as Ms. Finley wrote during the same time frame as Ms. Alcott (and, from what I've read, during that time shared the same amount of popularity). Meaning, the moralizing is going to feel heavy handed to modern readers, particularly to those un-accustomed to the literary period, the tragedies are frequent and often un-looked for (but very like daily life for the period), which may hinder families from reading this together; both of which would be a shame as this brings an era of U.S. history to life that doesn't hide or gloss over our past. Things were hard. Whole families did die to preventable/manageable sickness; accidents happened that took lives in an instant (they still do, but we feel like we can "do more" now, whether that is true or not); slavery was still rampant and people were accustomed to it, while also not agreeing with it (slavery is still rampant, look at human trafficking, we just do a better job of hiding it's evils). All to say, do not go into this expecting a book that is just going to tell a little story with some cute little characters; this book can make you think and probably make you uncomfortable if you read it frankly.

Content notes: No language issues. A girl get's multiple proposals, but turns them down and the only kissing is affectionate between family members. No fights or battles, but several accidents that result in maiming or death and a bad sickness goes over the whole countryside with several casualties.

[Tiffani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty similar to the "unoriginal version" of this book, but I didn't like this one as much. Mildred annoyed me a little... :[ Probably a little more gripping to a younger audience.