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Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽'s Reviews > The Good Master
The Good Master
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Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽'s review
bookshelves: favorites, middle-grade, historical-fiction, dated-social-attitudes
Apr 09, 2014
bookshelves: favorites, middle-grade, historical-fiction, dated-social-attitudes
The Good Master, a Newbury Honor book written in 1935, is set in the Hungarian countryside in the early 1900s. If you like nostalgic, heartwarming children's fiction, this book is SO good. I recommended this book to a GR friend for her young granddaughter, and started reminiscing about how very, very much I loved this book when I was a young teen. I read it so many times when I was a 10-15 year old bookworm that I'm surprised my copy of the book stayed in one piece. I hid it in my school desk so the teacher wouldn’t notice I was reading instead of listening to the lesson (yeah, I was that kind of kid).
Think Farmer Boy set in old-time Hungary, and then add Kate, a feisty, mischievous cousin from the big city of Budapest, who is sent to stay with her country cousin Jansci and his parents because she's so spoiled and unmanageable that her single dad doesn't know what to do with her any more. A good dose of country living, farm chores and firm love help Kate turn around, but she keeps her mischievous streak!
Kate snitching the family's homemade sausages
Kate and Jansci have a delightful series of escapades and adventures, and Kate learns to love the people around her and the simpler life in the country. (Heads up on one scene that might bother some readers: in one chapter gypsies steal from the family and "kidnap" Kate, though she actually begs them to take her away with them when she discovers them stealing, so she won't get tied up and left in an empty house.)
This book is beautifully illustrated by the author, and is based on the author's own experiences as a child in the early 1900s, when she spent summers in the Hungarian countryside with her father. It's a lovely tale of life in old Hungary, a little old-fashioned, but very heartwarming.
Think Farmer Boy set in old-time Hungary, and then add Kate, a feisty, mischievous cousin from the big city of Budapest, who is sent to stay with her country cousin Jansci and his parents because she's so spoiled and unmanageable that her single dad doesn't know what to do with her any more. A good dose of country living, farm chores and firm love help Kate turn around, but she keeps her mischievous streak!
Kate snitching the family's homemade sausages
Kate and Jansci have a delightful series of escapades and adventures, and Kate learns to love the people around her and the simpler life in the country. (Heads up on one scene that might bother some readers: in one chapter gypsies steal from the family and "kidnap" Kate, though she actually begs them to take her away with them when she discovers them stealing, so she won't get tied up and left in an empty house.)
This book is beautifully illustrated by the author, and is based on the author's own experiences as a child in the early 1900s, when she spent summers in the Hungarian countryside with her father. It's a lovely tale of life in old Hungary, a little old-fashioned, but very heartwarming.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
April 9, 2014
– Shelved
April 9, 2014
– Shelved as:
favorites
October 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
middle-grade
October 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
historical-fiction
November 2, 2014
– Shelved as:
dated-social-attitudes
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QNPoohBear
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rated it 3 stars
Oct 06, 2014 02:14PM
Don't know how I missed this one but it sounds like a must-read. I love children's classics. I read everything in my tiny school library and anything old-fashioned I could get my hands on at the public library. This one must have been overlooked.
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As you can tell, I recommend it highly. I think anyone who liked the The Little House series would like this book. There's a sequel to The Good Master, The Singing Tree, but I didn't like it as well as a young girl, and really don't remember much about it at this point, except that it dealt with WWI and its aftermath. I really ought to go find it and read it again as an adult.
A favorite of mine too! Loved all of her books, and the illustrations were incredible.
I can request it from the library system. The main library downtown in the capital has it in the stacks so it MUST have been available to me. I will be sure to read it. Maybe when the nieces and nephews are a bit older we'll read it together.
Wow, those illustrations ARE beautiful
Kate Seredy's illustrations for The White Stag (which won the Newbury Award, IIRC) were also gorgeous.
I found an early edition (8th printing) of this book today at a used/rare bookstore. I didn't buy it though. It didn't have a dust jacket. The frontispiece featured beautiful crayon portraits of Kate and Jansci. The other illustrations were in black and white.
Qnpoohbear wrote: "I found an early edition (8th printing) of this book today at a used/rare bookstore. I didn't buy it though. It didn't have a dust jacket. The frontispiece featured beautiful crayon portraits of Ka..."Just out of curiosity, how much was it?
Karlyne wrote: "Qnpoohbear wrote: "I found an early edition (8th printing) of this book today at a used/rare bookstore."I don't remember but it was less than $25 missing the dust jacket. www.cellarstories.com
Looks like a lovely store!
It's an amazing store! The rare book room made me drool a lot but all the books were too pricey for me and some I know my elementary school library owned. I wish I could have bought the library when the school closed. I'd be sitting on a fortune. The Good Master was in the regular children's section.
What happens to a library's books when it closes?
In this case, the books went to the new school library but I don't know what happened to them since then. When the public library in my neighborhood closed, some books went to other libraries in the city and a lot were sold/are being sold in the library book sale.
Still have my childhood copies- and the illustrations are stunning, as you say!
Beautiful illustrations! Homemade sausage...YUM :)
Haha. I just saw how you shelved this one, Tadiana ;)
Hana wrote: "Haha. I just saw how you shelved this one, Tadiana ;)"I assume you mean "your roots are showing." :) I use that shelf for older books that have some content (racial, religious, sexist, etc.) that's either iffy or unacceptable by our modern standards. I generally cut old books some slack when they're not PC, as long as it's not too offensive.
Indeed. And here I was thinking about hair color, age and old-fashioned books! I am very much of your mind about cutting good old books some slack on PC issues.
One of my all-time fave raves from childhood, and "The Singing Tree" is just heart-breaking.
Elliot wrote: "One of my all-time fave raves from childhood, and "The Singing Tree" is just heart-breaking."I agree! I loved this to death when I was young, but The Singing Tree was too sad for me to really love it. I like that one much better as an adult.
I love your review! I'm going to add this to my Amazon Wishlist ♥
Melissa wrote: "I love your review! I'm going to add this to my Amazon Wishlist ♥"I think you'll really like it! You can always take a look at the first couple of chapters on Amazon or check out a library copy. Just keep in mind that it is a middle grade book.
I added it to my list, it sounds wonderful and it's not too expensive. I love kids books :-)
I've never read that one -- it sounds nice!
I read this one to my daughter a few years ago. One of the best Newbury books I've read.
J. Sebastian wrote: "I read this one to my daughter a few years ago. One of the best Newbury books I've read."I agree - I loved this book so much when I was a young teen. Still do!
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "I agree - I loved this book so much when I was a young teen. Still do!"There was a sequel, was there not?
Yes, the sequel is The Singing Tree. I checked it out from the library a few years ago and reread it. It’s a better book than I gave it credit for when I was a teenager: not as likable or lighthearted as this one, but it has more depth.
Wow, I never heard about this book or the author, though I am Hungarian. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention.
Melindam wrote: "Wow, I never heard about this book or the author, though I am Hungarian. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention."Oh, you DEFINITELY need to read this! The sequel, The Singing Tree, is also quite good, and Kate Seredy later won the Newbery Award for The White Stag.
Thanks from me, too! I'm half Hungarian, so this sounds very interesting.
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "Yes, the sequel is The Singing Tree. I checked it out from the library a few years ago and reread it. It’s a better book than I gave it credit for when I was a teenager: not as likabl..."It's about time I re-read "The Singing Tree", however. I remember it vividly, one for being so different - shockingly different - in tone from "The Good Master". Kind of my first experience with that sort of thing - tho' modern-day "Harry Potter" fans are probably used to YA books darkening in tone throughout the series. Two for really, really re-shaping my adolescent views on WWI - it was much, much harder to see "the Huns" as unequivocal enemies when I was reading about Hungarian characters I'd come to care about very deeply!
Um, it is set before the outbreak of WWI, as seen by the fact that the sequel, “the Singing Tree” begins with the start of WWI and the father going off to fight in it.
Oops, I actually knew that but my brain clearly wasn’t fully engaged when I wrote this review. Corrected! Thanks!
