Mildred's New Daughter

Mildred Keith #7

by Martha Finley

Young orphans Ethel, Blanche, Harry, and Nannette Eldon have suffered much since the loss of their parents -- their British father after a prolonged illness and their mother suddenly over the shock of her husband's death. Now these youngsters are sent across the Atlantic to live with their uncles in Philadelphia. Ethel, who is eager to do her share to support her brother and sisters, takes a job running a shop, and she and Blanche become engaged to cousins Stuart Ormsby and Percy Landreth. The boys bring their brides home to Pleasant Plans, and Mildred gains a daughter.

Genres: Fiction, Christian Fiction, Young Adult, Historical

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

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

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The conclusion of the Mildred Keith series follows Ethel Eldon from young childhood to her eventual meeting and marriage to Mildred's son Percy, becoming her first daughter-in-law (and has Mildred actually in about one chapter).

Ms. Finley was very good at giving a picture of the time period (and as she wrote in her own near past, it was familiar territory for the original readers), which I often find fascinating (from the people who have both elements of good and bad (unlike the usual "children's classics" characters who can be quite flat), to the somewhat random loss of people near and dear (accurately reflecting the mortality rate of the time), even to the political climate (the admittedly few, people openly celebrating in the U.S. northern states when hearing of Lincoln's assassination and how they were sometimes horribly treated)). All build to topics that we still struggle with in these days and make the clothing and words strange, but the people underneath familiar.

Content notes: No language issues. No sensuality issues. Ethel and siblings are orphaned at a young age and one of their caregivers is physically, verbally and mentally abusive, but good people step in when they realize what is happening when their brother is being beaten, all the neighbors showing up and demanding it stop was an unfortunate culture shock, as I don't see that happening in this "modern and civilized" day and age, a brief re-cap of the Civil War and horrors of POW camps (which is covered in more depth in the previous book of the series).