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That Scatterbrain Booky (Booky, #1)

Bernice Thurman Hunter

Start date: April 1, 2021

Finish date: April 30, 2021

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Nov 01, 2010 Manybooks rated it it was amazing

Shelves: childrens-literature, favourites-read, historical-fiction, book-reviews

Originally published by Scholastic, Canada in 1981, Bernice Thurman Hunter's sweet and evocative That Scatterbrain Booky is actually the first installment of a trilogy featuring young Beatrice Thomson and her immediate and extended family's life and struggles during the hard days of Depression era Toronto (the other books of the trilogy are With Love From Booky, As Ever, Booky, and the entire trilogy has also recently been rereleased as Booky: A Trilogy). And from the information about Bernice T Originally published by Scholastic, Canada in 1981, Bernice Thurman Hunter's sweet and evocative That Scatterbrain Booky is actually the first installment of a trilogy featuring young Beatrice Thomson and her immediate and extended family's life and struggles during the hard days of Depression era Toronto (the other books of the trilogy are With Love From Booky, As Ever, Booky, and the entire trilogy has also recently been rereleased as Booky: A Trilogy). And from the information about Bernice Thurman Hunter as it is presented on Goodreads, it becomes rather obvious that the Booky trilogy is, in fact, rather autobiographical, and that young Beatrice Thomson very much and very closely mirrors the author herself as a young child, that Beatrice and her family's struggles are, indeed, at least partially, the struggles faced by Bernice Thurman Hunter and her family during much of her own childhood.

And yes, I do love absolutely everything about That Scatterbrain Booky. The sense of place (of 1930s Toronto and its environs) is real and palpable; Toronto as a city, with its landmarks, its department stores, its streetcars almost really and truly feels like an actual character in the book (and the archival photographs included also add to this delightful sense of place). Furthermore young Booky is an absolutely adorable and wonderful narrator. Seeing Toronto, Depression era life and its problems, its many struggles, but also some of its joys through her eyes, through Booky's narrative voice, was and still continues to be both eye-opening and refreshing. That Scatterbrain Booky is simply wonderful, and much of the wonder, the pleasure (even if it is sometimes also painful and sad) comes from the fact that the novel (just like the rest of the trilogy) strives to be realistic, often even brutally realistic, presenting a real and utterly believable mirror of what life was often like during the Great Depression, especially for working-class families like the Thomsons (not being able to pay the rent, being dependent on social welfare, not having enough food for the family, actually arguing about and debating wether it might not be better to put an expected baby up for adoption).

And thus, in many ways, That Scatterbrain Booky is a story with heavy, problematic themes, a novel that could very easily have been first and foremost a hard and devastating description life during the Depression. However, Booky's narration, her many humorous asides, the love and sense of family togetherness and loyalty shown do help to mitigate and relegate that present and often very visible sense of desperation and poverty. For even during the worst fights, even when the father actually strikes the mother, there is (at least for me) a sense that this family really and truly loves one another deeply and lastingly, that while there are definitely problems and instances of dysfunction, these are mostly simply the result of the terrible living conditions and the fact that the father feels ashamed of being out of work and thus a burden to society (and while this in NO way excuses the fact that he hit his wife, it does put the fights, the anger, the arguments somewhat in perspective). And it is furthermore most refreshing that Bernice Thurman Hunter in That Scatterbrain Booky has shown Booky's parents (who really do seem to represent her own parents) realistically, that she has decided to paint a real picture of what the Depression was like for many, that she has not ever sugar-coated her story.

Now That Scatterbrain Booky is divided into short, manageable chapters and has a text that reads easily and flowingly so that most children above the age of eight or nine would likely have no problems with reading and reading comprehension (although they might have some questions regarding historical facts and/or some of the Toronto landmarks, street names etc.). However, because of the rather heavy themes (the poverty, the family arguments, and especially the fact that there are instances of physical abuse as well as physical discipline described in That Scatterbrain Booky), the novel might be better suited for slightly older children (say above the age of ten or eleven). Also, some of the issues mentioned and presented in That Scatterbrain Booky should probably be collectively discussed and debated (as children reading the story might have questions, but even if they do not seem to have questions, there is both room and I think even a need to discuss and analyse some of the heavier themes depicted in That Scatterbrain Booky). ...more

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Feb 03, 2017 Frannie Burd marked it as to-read

Nov 10, 2017 Carrie marked it as willow-tbr

Feb 23, 2021 Connie Anne Kikta marked it as to-read

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