Rating: 
Summary: An elegantly told coming-of-age story
Review: A simple story told from a 15-year-old's point of view. The teenager in question is Theresa, a beautiful girl beloved by animals and children alike. Amazingly perspicacious for a teen, Theresa takes us through a summer on Long Island where she cares for her younger cousin, Daisy, the daughter of a semi-famous painter, Flora, and a host of other neighborhood kids and animals.Overall, Child of My Heart seemed more a series of observations and daily happenings than a plotted story. Yet it was oddly compelling, perhaps because McDermott is such a gifted writer. But I did have some problems with Theresa's character: even though she seemed so beyond her years in many respects, she was still very childlike ' she had no friends her age (only younger) and expressed no interest in boys (save for her creepy relationship with the geriatric painter). And that relationship was rather inexplicable ' she never expresses any sexual longing or attraction to this man, but still she gets naked with the old geezer (yuck!), despite being keenly aware of her beauty and that she could probably have any man she wanted. I guess I just felt like something was missing here, but I'm not sure what.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to rate and hard to classify
Review: ...There were parts I really liked: The relationship of Theresa with Flora and her cousn Daisy, the unlikely but believable sexual energy with the 70yo painter (Flora's father), the Moran kids, the mood.
But there were many things that I really didn't like: The heavy-handed foreshadowing of Daisy's illness and death, the sugar-sweet perfection of Theresa, her shadowy parents, the idyllic summer setting, Theresa's protestations of 'I just like children.'Overall, I found myself repeatedly muttering aloud, 'No way...this would ever really happen.' No gorgeous 15yo girl I've ever met or heard of would devote herself so completely to all the children of a tiny village on Long Island. I kept wondering: Where are the 15yo BOYS in this town, and why aren't they tromping down the dune grass to get to this shimmering morsel of female teenage perfection??
But the writing was beautiful, and McDermott can cast a spell with mood writing.
As I said, it's difficult to review this one. I'm conflicted.
Rating:
Summary: Gentle, Nostalic and Lovely
Review: Perhaps this book found me at the right time. I'm a new mom and, apparently, my patience for fiction has diminished a great deal. While I used to read 4 or 5 novels a month, I've been limiting my recent diet to parenting books. Oh well. Somehow this story captured my attention. I think it was largely the gentle pace and the nostalgic portrayal of the summer days of girlhood. My only hesitation in praising the book involves the main character, Theresa. For the majority of the story she was painted in an angelic light. Her blossoming sexuality could certainly be understood, but her attraction to a senior artist--light and shadow notwithstanding--didn't quite mesh. In any event, I was drawn to Theresa's goodness. I suppose it was her precocious motherly qualities that endeared her to me at this time in my life.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely book about a young girl's coming of age
Review: Young Theresa is the middle class Irish and strikingly beautiful babysitter to the rich and famous of Long Island's East End. She spends her fifteenth summer caring for "four dogs, three cats, the Moran kids, Daisy, my eight-year-old- cousin, and Flora, the toddler child of a local artist." Theresa still lives in the world of children, weaving stories about lollipop trees and bedazzled shoes and spending her days at the beach. However, by the end of the summer, as illness, death and betrayal have obliquely asserted themselves, Theresa has become an adult. It is from this vantage of loss that our older narrator tells the dense story of one June to August. In one sense, little heartbreak happens. Early on, Theresa discovers the ominous bruises on her young cousin Daisy but decides not to search out their meaning. The neglected neighbor children, the Morans, crash through the summer but without great catastrophe. Even the privileged toddler, Flora, who has been essentially abandoned by her cosmopolitan mother, is still at an age where she can be easily pacified with a bottle of red juice. Tragedy and adulthood itself are postponed to the unwritten pages of life after the story's summer. However, in between, McDermott's lapidary prose hovers the inexorableness of Daisy's cancer death, of the Morans frustrated alcoholic future and of the lost and lonely adult Flora inevitably will become. "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day." Theresa quotes from her school's production of Macbeth throughout the novel and it is this ineluctable progression of time that forms the book's core sad note. For the narrator, an older Theresa looking back, childhood represents the finest point of life. It is a time of unlikely hopes, a time before the distasteful ambition, disappointed love and parental death of adulthood. Alice McDermott's skill and restraint make CHILD OF MY HEART an anxious, lovely book, rather than the mawkish or sentimental one its story would have produced under the care of a less exquisite, sincere and deliberate writer. Many readers will find the craft itself, rather than the characters or the images, to be the most memorable quality of this book. One reads with the rare confidence that no scene has been carelessly included, that no sentence is meaninglessly clever. Each paragraph further compels the reader towards McDermott's elaborate argument and desired impact. --- Reviewed by Rivka Galchen
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, great setting, wonderful characters
Review: Didn't want this book to end. I felt like I was living with the characters, rather than reading about them. While it was a sometimes sad and poignant book, it gave me an uplifting feeling that's hard to explain. I read a lot, and this book is right up there as one of my favorite works of fiction. Subtle in its message, it is beautifully written and a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: A modern day classic!!
Review: I am disheartened when I read some of the reviews of this book. I was taken with this story from the very first pages. I see Theresa as a modern day St. Francis, efortlessly winning the respect of animals and children alike. I got the feeling that Theresa didn't really fit in anyway, what with being the only child of older parents, so she used her talent of being the most sought after baby sitter in Long Island to her benefit and to the benefit of many children that are all but forgotten by their families. Theresa provided the stability that this idyllic place needed. This book and all the people in it are utterly unforgettable and superbly crafted. I was touched by Theresa's unconditional love for Daisy Mae and Flora. I loved the scenes at the beach as well as the scene with Debbie and Curly, the cat, and decorating the lollipop tree. Alice McDermott is an efortless, gifted storyteller and this is the type of book that you'll want to curl up with and hang on to.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book
Review: I read this book "Child of My Heart" twice in one week. I loved the characters. The Moran Children, Flora and mostly I loved Daisy. I wanted Daisy to be saved and was saddened by "we lost Daisy in March." When Teresa, Daisy and Flora decorated the tree with lollipops I was visualizing it. When they were on the beach I felt I was there with them. I was with them every minute. I did not understand why Teresa had this sexual encounter with the painter. If she was a young and beautiful girl, she could have had an encounter with a young and handsome boy near her own age. I decided that she was impressed with his reputation as a painter and a lover. Teresa was only 15 years old and a 15 year old looks at situations differently than a mature person. She had no idea how serious the situation was with Daisy's health. I read "Charming Billy" and did not like it. So you see we are all different. I cannot wait until Alice McDermott writes another book. Maybe she will write one about a grown up Teresa and the Moran Children.
Rating:
Summary: Unsatisfying
Review: This is a novel about a 15 year old girl who invites her "poor" 8 year old cousin to her house on the east end of Long Island, so she can spend the summer. Theresa, the heroine, is a lonely beautiful girl, daughter of hard working parents who are not as rich as their summer neighbors. To make money, and get noticed by the right people, Theresa babysits, walks dogs, etc. This is not a coming of age story, it is a reminiscience of a brief moment in time. THe good thing about this book is the writing. Much of it is lyrical and beautiful, and flows from page to page. But hte plot of the book leaves much to be desired. Things happen, but they are vague and underplayed. I assume this was done on purpose, but it doesn't work for me. It just makes everything that happens unimportant- days meld together. And the character development is weak, as the main character is weak. Theresa NEVER hangs out with anyone her own age. For a girl who is supposed to be so beautiful, no one between the ages of 11 and 35 ever approaches her. There are no girls from school calling, no trips to the ice cream shop, etc. It is just weird. All the adults we come across are strange as well- nasty socialite women, leering older men, the drunken next door neighbor, uncaring parents, including Theresa's own parents, who don't seem to care too much about what she's up to, or if she's happy. Because of the time frame of this book, we never see Thersa grow, or change, which leads me to the question- what was the point of this book?
Rating: 
Summary: Alice in Wonderland
Review: This book was a disappointment after the first 50 pages....I guess that once you are famous anything can get published ....there was no recognizable character in this novel. The main character is obviously a loner, conceited and self-centered....seducing a 70 year old man and not revealing a child's medical condition because she's be parted from her makes her selfish....read Charming Billy and then stop.
Rating: 
Summary: Child of my Heart
Review: 15 year old Theresa, nanny to the wealthy on Long Island, comes off as Mary Poppins or Peter Pan.
Everything she does, she does perfectly, and all the children and animals in her care love her more than their own families. She is evidently very beautiful and she knows it. I found the book dull. It was very flat. I never felt anything at all in reading this book. No joy, sadness, anger, humor....nothing! Theresa spoke of everything that occurred, including Daisy's situation, and the experience with the old man, in the same matter of fact tone that she used when speaking of going to the beach or walking the dogs.
Perhaps I'm a little too old and that this book would appeal primarily to young adults.
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