Ten-year-old Birdie Boyer can hardly wait to start picking the strawberries. Her family has just moved to the Florida backwoods, and they haven't even begun their planting. Making the new farm prosper won't be easy--what with the heat, the droughts, the cold snaps and the neighbors.

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski was originally published in 1945 and was part of a regional series. This Newbery Medal winner is about a family called the Boyers who proudly call themselves Florida Crackers. They have a farm and grow strawberries and oranges. The author writes this engaging story in the dialogue of the area and captures the times and their way of life.

Part of the story revolves around the on-going feud between the hardworking Boyers and their proud but shiftless neighbours. The story unfolds through the eyes of the main character, Birdie Boyer who is about ten years old. Her straightforward manner and simplistic views give this rustic story heart.

The author was also an illustrator and her drawings help to bring the book to life. She was well known as an illustrator and did the artwork for the original “The Little Engine That Could” and the early volumes of the “Betsy-Tacy” series. Although rather dated today, Strawberry Girl gave the reader an interesting picture of life in the Florida backwoods during the 1940s. ( )

Birdie Boyer's family moves to a farm in rural Florida, but their neighbors, the Slaters, are a bitter and resentful bunch who don't want the Boyers living hear them. The book alternates between illustrations of the pioneer-like lifestyle the rural Floridians lived, and episodes of feuding between the two families. I thought the conclusion of the story was contrived, sudden, and not very believable.
Similar to the Little House on the Prairie series, but better, because it has more of a story. ( )

I have always loved classic children's literature and have read much of it. I especially love the classics that have animals in them. This particular book is one of my favorites and I think it is equally good when you read it as an adult or as a child. The characters are engaging and realistic and the story draws you in. It is a book I enjoy re-reading. ( )

A Newbery Medal-winning novel written and illustrated by Lois Lenski. In this book, the reader meets Birdie Boyer, the daughter of a farmer who has just moved his family from North Carolina to Florida to grow strawberries. At first, Birdie and her family are friendly toward their new neighbors, the Slaters, but their overtures of friendship are met time and again with cruel suggestions that their strawberry crop is likely to fail, and they should go back to North Carolina. The rivalry escalates as time goes on, with alcoholic Mr. Slater becoming increasingly violent and belligerent until even his own family begins to suffer.