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!
![description](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1412625843i/11398246._SY540_.png)
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.
![description](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1412625843i/11398247._SX540_.png)
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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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message 1:
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QNPoohBear
(new)
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rated it 3 stars
Oct 06, 2014 02:14PM
![QNPoohBear](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1527904848p1/22177907.jpg)
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![Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1648407601p1/8734459.jpg)
![QNPoohBear](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1527904848p1/22177907.jpg)
Wow, those illustrations ARE beautiful
![Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1648407601p1/8734459.jpg)
![QNPoohBear](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1527904848p1/22177907.jpg)
![Karlyne Landrum](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1270093598p1/2158408.jpg)
Just out of curiosity, how much was it?
![QNPoohBear](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1527904848p1/22177907.jpg)
I don't remember but it was less than $25 missing the dust jacket. www.cellarstories.com
![QNPoohBear](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1527904848p1/22177907.jpg)
![QNPoohBear](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1527904848p1/22177907.jpg)
![Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1648407601p1/8734459.jpg)
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.
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![Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1648407601p1/8734459.jpg)
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.
![Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1648407601p1/8734459.jpg)
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.
![Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1648407601p1/8734459.jpg)
I agree - I loved this book so much when I was a young teen. Still do!
![J. Sebastian](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1529334439p1/5744897.jpg)
There was a sequel, was there not?
![Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1648407601p1/8734459.jpg)
![Melindam](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1484595601p1/36434323.jpg)
![Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1648407601p1/8734459.jpg)
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.
![Elliot Jackson](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
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!
![Corey](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1530564908p1/285301.jpg)