Book Review- Strawberry Girl

For my Monthly Keyword Challenge, Re-reading challenge and Newberry challenge I read Lois Lenski's Newberry award winner Strawberry Girl. 

Synopsis from Goodreads: The land was theirs, but so were its hardships. Strawberries- big, ripe, and juicy. Ten-year-old Birdie Boyer can hardly wait to start picking them. But her family has just moved to the Florida backwoods, and they haven′t even begun their planting. "Don′t count your biddies ′fore they′re hatched, gal young un!" her father tells her. Making the new farm prosper is not easy. There is heat to suffer through, and droughts, and cold snaps. And, perhaps most worrisome of all for the Boyers, there are rowdy neighbors, just itching to start a feud.

Reading this book made me feel incredibly lazy... like I should go work in the garden for a few hours in 100 degree weather. Throughout the book I was continually impressed with how hard they worked and strove to build their new life. The biggest contrast to our current day of this book was how they seemed to take their work as a granted part of their day. The children didn't sit around complaining about it.... they did it. They all, from the youngest to the oldest, understood the consequences of laziness and the rewards of working hard. I thought it was a great reminder to my generation that if you want something you have to work for it. Few things come easy.
Overall it was actually a pretty simple book but with a good message. When I was done I wondered if it was quite worth of winning the Newberry award, as even though I thought it was good I thought there were better books out there. However, I looked up what else was up for the award that year and of the ones I have read I think it deserved to win. :) Not that my vote counts. ;)

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