Mandy

This was one of my all time favorite reads as a child. I'm a bit afraid to read it now, and see how unlovely it is (if that's the case). I had no idea who Julie Andrews was when I read it (or at least I don't think I did).

This was a cute little story. It reminded me a little bit of Annie. It is about a very independent little girl that is living at an orphanage. She desperately wants a place of her own and is often sad about not having a family that loves her. She is strong though and she works at the general store for pocket money. One day she climbs a high wall at the back of the orchard and down to the other side. There she stumbles across a sweet little cottage with a shell room inside. She claims it as her own and starts to clean it up and tend the garden. She tries very hard to keep it a secret because she wants that to be her special place where she can go. She doesn't even want to share her secret with Sue, her best friend at the orphanage, but Sue knows something is going on and tries to find out her secret. She finds it hard to keep the secret though as she sometimes has to lie and steal some things and she felt very guilty. Also, her friend Sue is upset that she wont tell her what's going on and no longer spends time with her. In the end Sue does find out her secret and it is a very good thing because Mandy needed help and no one else knew where she was.

I enjoyed re-reading this book as it was one of my favorite books growing up. As I read, I smiled at remembering Mandy's climbing over the wall, and even though I knew how it would end, I still worried when she was in the cottage while she was sick.