Ida B: . . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World Book

Ida B. Applewood has been home-schooled for the last five years. She tried kindergarten but was so unhappy with the rules and regimentation that her parents, apple farmers, decided it would be best if they educated her at home. She's been blissfully happy ever since. However, now that she's nine, a big and terrible change has come. "Mama" has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and the treatments she must undergo will not allow her to attend to Ida B.'s instruction. Furthermore, without Ida B.'s mother's help, "Daddy" will have to do all the farm work himself. The girl has to attend school. What's more, she has to cope with the fact that in order to pay for her mother's medical treatment, her father has to sell some of the family's beloved orchard.

Ida B. is not so self-centered that she is not distressed by her mother's illness and her father's sadness, but she feels she must harden her heart and sharpen its edges against the blows she has been dealt. It's the only way to cope with returning to school.

Once at school, she rejects the warmth of her teacher and the friendliness of the students in her class. She discovers, as well, that it is the family of one of her classmates who has purchased the Applewood land. They're building a house on the property, and they have cut down the lovely apple trees that were Ida B.'s friends.

It takes effort for Ida B. to maintain her hard-heartedness, and the author is very good at depicting the confusion of emotions in her young protagonist as the girl attempts to cope with significant life changes.

At first, I didn't like this novel at all. Ida B. is more than a bit precious. She names and talks to trees and brooks, who answer her back, and she's obviously intended to be a darling, nature-loving eccentric. I don't see any reason why the author couldn't have left out these annoyingly twee verbal and behavioral tics. It would have made for a far better novel.

So, in the end, I've got mixed feelings about this book for girls 8 to 12 years of age. The strengths of the novel include its sensitive rendering of a child's emotional turmoil, but, unfortunately, they're coupled with some of the most irritating and sentimental characteristics of American children's literature.