Family Sabbatical (Nancy Pearl's Book Crush Rediscoveries) - Softcover

Carol Ryrie Brink (1895–1981) was an American author of more than thirty books for children and adults. She is widely known for her novel Caddie Woodlawn, which won the 1936 Newbery Medal, the award given to the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in a given year. Carol grew up in Idaho and later attended the University of Idaho. She transferred to the University of California, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1918. She married that same year and settled with her husband in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where they lived for more than forty years and had two children. Brink’s first novel, Anything Can Happen on the River, was published in 1934. Three of Brink’s children’s books are included in the Book Crush Rediscoveries series: Family Grandstand (1952), Family Sabbatical (1956), and The Highly Trained Dogs of Professor Petit (1953).

Nancy Pearl is a librarian and lifelong reader. She regularly comments on books on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Her books include 2003’s Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason; 2005’s More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason; 2007’s Book Crush: For Kids and Teens; Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest; and 2010’s Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. Among her many awards and honors are the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal, the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, the 2010 Margaret E. Monroe Award from the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association, and the 2004 Women’s National Book Association Award.

A lot of funny things happen on these further adventures of the Ridgeways, a Midwestern professor, his mystery-writing wife, and their family, who are on a year's leave of absence in Cannes and Paris. Susan is the twelve year old diary writer whose misspelled observations have their own authority; George keeps busy being a ten year old in France; and Dumpling, seven, is as prodigious as she was in Family Grandstand. Among the things that happen to the Ridgeways are their taking up residence in a Grand Hotel near the sea, a friendly governess whose literal translations from French to English are “supaire dupaire” humor, a live if aged Austrian-princess discovered by Dumpling, and so forth. All very contagiously in the spirit and the groove, and delightful.