Next book on the YA shelf:
Next book on the shelf is now long-forgotten (if it was ever even known??) – Luvvy and the Girls
It had everything that captivated me as a kid:
— a bunch of girls
— boarding school
— no parents in sight
— strict nuns
— random bouts with tuberculosis and scarlet fever
— oh yeah, and it takes place in 1915 so all the girls wear sailor dresses …
All of this stuff was the stuff of my own fantasies!! Even though the nuns were strict, and sometimes very unfair … I kind of wanted to be in that boarding school, and wear my hair in a long braid with a bow at the back of my neck, and wear middy blouses, and dark scratchy wool tights, etc etc etc.
I have no idea where I got my copy of this book. It is the hardcover that I remember from my childhood – and I have had it for years. It has traveled with me across the country in all of my moves – so I’m not sure where I found it. On the first blank page, there is written in pencil: $3.00 Newport author. Hmmmm. The plot thickens. Carlson is from Newport?? I must have found it at a second-hand bookstore somewhere – and I am imagining that I must have found it at a second-hand bookstore in Rhode Island, where such things as “Newport author” really mean something. A local author, etc.
Anyway, I loved this book. Haven’t read it in a bazillion years but I still like having it around.
So Luvvy is 12 years old. She has a couple of older sisters – most of whom go to a Catholic boarding school. She has had to wait until she is old enough – and now, in the year 1915 – she is going to go join her sisters at the Academy. It’s so exciting. She gets to be with her sisters, she gets to “go away”, she is on her way to being grown up. Of course once she gets there, she has to deal with the girls in her OWN year – and all the typical things happen, except in a 1915 Catholic way … competitive stuff, jealousies, misunderstandings .. but also good friendships, a deeper relationship with her sisters – and also her OWN journey towards being a young woman.
Funny – all of these themes still interest me – and it’s one of the reasons why I find the Harry Potter books so transporting. Magic shmagic – it’s the thought of all of those KIDS at a boarding school – with NO PARENTS – having to work out their own relationships, and grow up and deal with personality problems, etc etc that really hooks me in.
Here’s an excerpt. I always loved this, as a kid, because it really gives you the sense that it takes place in another time. The candy was different!! That’s a good writer: using details like the kinds of candy the girls would eat as a way to put you back in that 1915 world.
From Luvvy and the Girls
The girls looked forward to Saturday. Especially Luvvy. By the end of the week, the convent walls seemed closing in on her. She wanted to get out on the city streets and see adults — real people who weren’t nuns — and cars driving around and horses pulling carts and busy shops.
It was a relief to take off the juvenile apron for the afternoon. The dye in the black sateen did have a queer, unpleasant smell – like singed chicken feathers. Then she put on the new blue suit with its high waist and longer skirt. She caressed her purse with the bright nickel inside.
Again she was exasperated at being a Little Girl. They could spend only a nickel in town, but the Big Girls were allowed a dime from their allowances. Lucky Big Girls! Next year, she would have a whole dime to spend. If she returned next year.
Each Satruday the important decision was how to spend the money. A nickel would buy a bag of candy at the Misses Beckley’s shop or an ice cream cone at Dutrow’s confectionary or two big, sour pickles at Zimmerman’s. Of coruse there were the luscious meringues at Dutrow’s – great balls of ice cream inside a meringue shell – but they cost a quarter, so no one could afford them until Commencement Week, when they could spend all the money left in their yearly allowances.
“I don’t know whether to buy a cone or operas,” said Luvvy.
Operas were a delicious kind of taffy that no one in the world but the Beckleys knew how to make. It was said that they had been offered big sums of money for their recipe, but refused to reveal the secret.
“I’m going to buy pickles and a cone,” said Betsey. “Since you only have a nickel to spend, Luvvy, I’ll give you a bite of my pickles.”
“And I’ll share my candy with you,” offered Hetty. “Maybe I’ll buy a cone too.” She opened her handbag and looked at the shiny dime. “But why don’t I buy the cones for Luvvy and me? You, Betsey, buy the pickles and operas. And we’ll share them.”
“But I don’t want to divide two pickles among three people,” said Betsey. “I want all of one for myself. And what about my ice cream cone?”
“I’m all mixed up now,” said Hetty. “Let’s see. My dime will buy the cones and yours the pickles and operas. And we can use Luvvy’s nickel for operas too, so we’ll have lots of candy to take back.
The girls walked two abreast in a long procession with Sister Mary Rose at the head, and Sister Veronica bringing up the rear with the Very Littles Girl clinging to her hand.
By the time they reached Dutrow’s, Luvvy decided to buy her own ice cream cone.
“That will leave fifteen cents between Betsey and me after I pay for mine,” Hetty reckoned, “so we’ll buy five cents worth of pickles and ten cents worth of operas to divide. You can have a whole pickle, Betsey, and give the others to Luvvy. And if you help buy the operas, Luvvy and I will give you the cone parts and just eat the ice cream from them. They really taste as good, you know.”
They ate their cones inside the confectionary shop because eating was not allowed on the street. It was a very unladylike practice.
Luvvy ate slowly to savor each taste of the cold sweet ball. Because she was so slow, milky trickles ran down the side and Betsey complained, “You’re getting my cone all soggy.” So Luvvy licked upward, sculpturing the ice cream into a snowy peak, enjoying the icy touch to her tongue and the creamy film left on her lips.
She wondered if all these gallons of ice cream had been turned by hand as they did it in the home freezer, with Mama sprinkling salt on the ice from time to time.
do you have specially reinforced floors in your apartment to support your bookcases?
Sheil – I am confusing this book with Louly. Also, do you remember a book about Kitty? During the Depression? She starts biting her nails because she doesn’t have any bad habits? Talk to me Goose.
Sheila – I finally received this book from Amazon and read it in one night. It was every bit as fascinating as I remembered – especially reading about that little goody-two-shoes Amy Ackroyd and the Little Girls playing the game “name each person’s major fault”. But I have to agree with you – the description of the candy they ate was the best passage.
If it wasn’t for me googling the title of this book and your review of it here, I never would have come across your blog. I am so glad I did!
I too, loved this book, loved this excerpt! And I tried to find the first book years ago, but years after I had read Luvvy….too funny! Thanks for the memory! Did you ever read The Village That Slept?
Judy – I haven’t – is this by the same author? Let me look it up!
I too have an old copy of “Luvvy and the Girls”. I bought it as an adult–It was a library discard from the library system where I work– but I had actually checked it out and read it many times as a child. I loved it for all the same reasons you did–except I just recently re-read it and I am pretty sure there is no tuberculosis or scarlet fever. The only illnesses that happen are Betsey’s cold and Agatha’s pneumonia. I too loved the candy story but my favorite parts were the part where Luvvy very casually, just to show her friends something, does a very dangerous stunt that scares the heck out of the nuns, and the stories Luvvy made up, which were hilarious! The book is the sequel to “The Half Sisters”, so you might want to try and get ahold of a copy as it explains much of the backstory which is actually mentioned a lit in “Luvvy”–such as what happened to Luvvy’s little sister Maudie and her lost horse, Pepper. Also you really need to read the part where Luvvy, with the best will in the world, tries to promote her older sister’s romance and ends up thoroughly embarrassing her sister! the parents are more present and part of the story in “The Half Sisters” but are very likeable.