I read this book in this omnibus edition: Booky: A Trilogy.

Thanks to Goodreads’ friends Gundula, I have a copy of this of my very own, which I am happy to lend out. Another Goodreads friend offered to let me borrow her copies of the three books. What a wonderful site this is! What’s infuriating and disappointing though is how many books from faraway, and not all that far away, places are sometimes not available. Yes, this book is old, but it’s reprinted, and yet it’s not available at my public library. I’ll bet if the events in the book took place in the U.S. and not in Canada, our near neighbor, my library would have the book.

The cover has a painting of a young girl and normally I like deciding for myself what characters look like but turn the first page and there is a photo of a girl who looks exactly like the painting on the cover, and there are more photos. These are autobiographical novels with some non-fiction components.

The storytelling and writing style engaged me from the start. Booky’s narration is wonderful, her story lovingly drawn. So, despite the hunger and poverty and the hitting and yelling and other disturbing content, this book definitely qualifies as a comfort read for me. There was quite a bit of humor. There was a nifty appearance of the book [book:Anne of Green Gables|8127]. The author’s vivid and genuine memories of childhood had universal appeal. The relationships and situations felt very genuine. And there was so much hopefulness.

Unfortunately, when I read books about hungry people is when I’m most prone to overeat and Booky’s descriptions of her hunger and the hunger experienced by her family members was vividly told, as were the descriptions of the foods they did eat.

The photographs of people and places and things and events from the time, including some of the author when young, really added to my pleasure of reading the story. It brought the historical fiction even more to life.

What a treasure! It’s ridiculous that just because this book’s events take place in Canada and it’s by a Canadian author, that it’ so difficult to obtain in the U.S. My library should have this edition (it has no Booky books) and I think I’ll recommend they purchase it for lending out. Thanks to Goodreads’ friend Gundula I own this lovely book, and thanks also to Goodreads’ friend Abigail who offered to lend me her 3 Booky books.

I expect this will be my favorite of the three books. The child narrator is so entertaining; in this book she goes in age from shortly before her 10th birthday until shortly after her 11th birthday.

If I’d read this when I was 9, 10, 11 it would have been one of my favorite books. My father talked about the Great Depression some when I was young. He was a young adult by then, but when he was Booky’s age he also lived in extreme poverty, no happy ending for him until he was older than Booky.

ETA:

I read this as a buddy read with Hilary.

Reread 2019/12/7-9 3 days. I’d remembered I’d liked it when I read it over 7-1/2 years ago but I actually remembered very little from it. It was almost like reading it for the first time.

I’d read the first book on my own a long time back. I liked it so much I was scared to continue but I’ve read enough reviews now of the second and third books that I wanted to read all three and I knew I had to reread the first book so it would be fresh in my memory. I wanted to read the trilogy as one book. (Much thanks to Gundula for giving me this copy. Unfortunately, this book is hard to find in the U.S. None of my libraries have it.)

From this trilogy I read the first book and short story that follows book 1 over 7-1/2 years ago. Later today I'm starting again, reading the entire book with HIlary. Eager to get started. I love all the photos.

We were delayed. I own a copy but the Open Library copy Hilary needs to read has been borrowed and has an additional person waiting, not true not that many days ago. It's so frustrating when books aren't available in certain countries. This one I'd think libraries in Canada would have it but that's not true in the United States or in England.

I’d already written reviews for the first book and the story that comes between books one and two, the parts I reread. I’ll add my notes to those and my reviews and reading of books two and three will be brand new.

The only frustrating thing is that seems so much more like a biography/non-fiction than a novel. There are even many photos of the people/characters. I don’t know what is true and what is fictionalized. The photographs are wonderful!

So after my second read of book 1 and the short story. I liked the short story but to me it seems like the last chapter of book 1.

I love Booky and her mother too. The story is great. I can feel what it felt like to be poor in the Great Depression with this family and the people they know who live near or are relatives and friends. Great historical fiction! The many photos included and knowing this book was based on the author’s life have me curious about what was true and what was fictionalized. ( )

Originally published in 1981, this slender little paperback packs quite a punch! The first of a trilogy of books depicting a young girl's experiences growing up in Depression-era Toronto - it is followed by With Love From Booky and As Ever, Booky - it is by turns humorous and heartbreaking, never shying away from depicting the disturbing realities of life during that tumultuous time, but also giving full expression to the joys and pleasures of childhood, and of family life. Chronicling the adventures of Booky (Beatrice) Thomson, and the trials and tribulations that she and her family endure from 1932 through 1933, when her father is (despite all his better efforts) unemployed, and her family is continually being evicted by the bailiff, That Scatterbrain Booky is a record of hunger - the book opens as Booky hands her mother a note from the school nurse, to the effect that she (Booky) is more than twenty pounds underweight, and therefore qualifies for free government milk - and the unhappiness caused by want; but it is also a loving portrait of a family that, despite the strains put upon them by their real and pressing need, is bound together by the ties of love.

Booky is a engaging narrator, with a distinctive (and distinctly amusing) voice all her own, and watching events unfold through her eyes is both hilarious and poignant - often all at once. Her little asides, and ruminations on the people around her are quite amusing, as are her innocent observations and unasked questions: Where do babies come from? If Uncle Charlie sends his baby girl "back," because he wants a son instead, where would she go back to? Impressively, Bernice Thurman Hunter manages to include some terribly devastating episodes - a family fight in which Booky's father strikes her mother; an overheard conversation, in which Booky's mother considers giving up her unborn child for adoption, because she cannot afford to feed the four children she already has - in her story, and still preserve the essentially carefree feeling of the book as a whole. This is because she really is telling the story through a child's eyes - her own eyes, as I understand these books are largely autobiographical.

Compulsively readable, immensely enjoyable, and greatly moving, That Scatterbrain Booky is a title that I highly recommend, to all young readers who enjoy historical fiction, and to anyone interested in Depression-era Toronto. I had no sooner set it down, then I was reaching for the second installment of Booky's story, With Love From Booky. ( )

First published by Scholastic, Canada in 1981, [b:That Scatterbrain Booky|1426406|That Scatterbrain Booky (Booky, #1)|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328020606s/1426406.jpg|1416886] by [a:Bernice Thurman Hunter|348462|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1317739463p2/348462.jpg] is the first novel of a trilogy featuring young Beatrice Thomson and her immediate and extended family's life and struggles during the hard days of Depression era Toronto (the other books of the trilogy are [b:With Love From Booky|647637|With Love From Booky (Booky, #2)|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328021153s/647637.jpg|633781] and [b:As Ever, Booky|647638|As Ever, Booky (Booky, #3)|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328278538s/647638.jpg|633782], and the entire trilogy has recently been rereleased, [b:Booky: A Trilogy|3485526|Booky A Trilogy|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1329774738s/3485526.jpg|3526934]). From the information regarding [a:Bernice Thurman Hunter|348462|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1317739463p2/348462.jpg] on Goodreads, it is quite obvious that the Booky trilogy is very much autobiographical and that young Beatrice Thomson very much and very closely represents the author herself as a young child, that Beatrice and her family's struggles are, indeed, the struggles faced by [a:Bernice Thurman Hunter|348462|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1317739463p2/348462.jpg] during much of her own childhood.

I love everything about this delightful slice-of-life story. The sense of place (of 1930s Toronto and its environs) is real and palpable; Toronto as a city, with its landmarks, its department stores, its streetcars almost feels like a character in the book (and the archival photographs included also add to this sense of place). And Booky is an absolutely adorable and wonderful narrator. Seeing Toronto, Depression era life and its problems, its many struggles, but also some of its joys through her eyes, through Booky's narrative voice was and still continues to be both eye-opening and pleasurable. [b:That Scatterbrain Booky|1426406|That Scatterbrain Booky (Booky, #1)|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328020606s/1426406.jpg|1416886] is simply wonderful, and much of the wonder, the pleasure (even if it is sometimes painful and sad) comes from the fact that the book (just like the rest of the trilogy) strives to be realistic, often brutally realistic, presenting a real and utterly believable mirror of what life was often like during the Great Depression, especially for working-class families like the Thomsons (not being able to pay the rent, being dependent on social welfare, not having enough food for the family, actually arguing about and debating wether it might not be better to put an expected baby up for adoption).

In many ways, [b:That Scatterbrain Booky|1426406|That Scatterbrain Booky (Booky, #1)|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328020606s/1426406.jpg|1416886] is a novel with very heavy, problematic themes, a book that could very easily have been first and foremost a hard and devastating description life during the Depression. However, Booky's narration, her many humorous asides, the love and sense of family togetherness and loyalty shown help to mitigate and relegate that present and often very visible sense of desperation and poverty. Even during the worst fights, even when the father actually strikes the mother, there is (at least for me) a sense that this family really and truly loves one another, that while there are problems and aspects of dysfunction, these are mostly the result of the terrible living conditions and the fact that the father feels ashamed of being out of work and thus a burden to society (this in no way excuses the fact that he hit his wife, but it does put the fights, the anger, the arguments somewhat in perspective). And it is refreshing that [a:Bernice Thurman Hunter|348462|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1317739463p2/348462.jpg] has shown Booky's parents (who really represent her own parents) realistically, that she has decided to paint a real picture of what the Depression was like for many, that she has not sugar-coated her story.

[b:That Scatterbrain Booky|1426406|That Scatterbrain Booky (Booky, #1)|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328020606s/1426406.jpg|1416886] is divided into short, very manageable chapters and has a text that reads easily and flowingly; most children above the age of eight or nine would likely have no problems with reading and reading comprehension (although they might have some questions regarding historical facts and/or some of the Toronto landmarks, street names etc.). However, because of the rather heavy themes (the poverty, the family arguments, and especially the fact that there are instances of physical abuse as well as physical discipline described in the novel), [b:That Scatterbrain Booky|1426406|That Scatterbrain Booky (Booky, #1)|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328020606s/1426406.jpg|1416886] might be better suited for slightly older children (say above the age of ten or eleven). Also, some of the issues mentioned in [b:That Scatterbrain Booky|1426406|That Scatterbrain Booky (Booky, #1)|Bernice Thurman Hunter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328020606s/1426406.jpg|1416886] should probably be discussed with children (children reading the story might have questions, but even if they don't seem to have any questions, there is both room and I think a need to discuss and analyse some of the heavier themes presented). ( )

A great story about Toronto during the Depression, as Booky's family struggles to stay together during a time that strains their love to the limit - but Booky's spunky nature refuses to be crushed by any adversity. ( )