Rating: 
Summary: Nostalgic and very funny...
Review: I loved this book! I would have never picked this book up had it not been for a bookclub at work, luckily, I was pleasantly surprised. This book made me remember things in my own childhood that were not only funny but best told in my adulthood.
I had several friends read sections of the book and they all agreed they were funny. In addition we could see these things unfolding and sympathize with the reactions a child would have as well as the appreciation of those same moments seen with the eye of maturity.
Rating: 
Summary: Small-town life
Review: "A Girl Named Zippy" is a memoir of a childhood in a small Indiana town in the 1960s and 70s. The memories were generally happy ones, no abuse, no divorce, no deaths. One reviewer called Zippy's family dysfunctional. I didn't see them that way. The father gambled and drank and had no visible job, but these facts hardly seemed to affect Zippy. Her mother spent all her time reading, and one year the family's artificial Christmas tree was still up in late March. Sounds perfectly normal to me.Some reviewers complained about the incidents of cruelty to animals and Zippy's lack of any religious principles. Neither of these aspects of the book bothered me. I thought the animal incidents and descriptions were the only boring parts of the book. So what if she had no religious feeling. If you haven't got it, you haven't got it. I could sympathize with Zippy's boredom in church. The book was mildly entertaining and a fairly pleasant way to fill a long afternoon.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: You know that feeling that you get when someone corners you at a party and tells you "funny" stories about their childhoods or college experiences? That's how I felt when I was reading this book. I would not recommend this book to anyone. Boring stories and boring characters.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD BUT FAR FETCHED
Review: I gave the book 4 stars because I actually missed hearing "Zippy's" stories after I was finished. I wanted a sequel so she could keep on telling her life. I did think it was funny and even had a tear here and there. The thing I found most disturbing was the fact that she continuously told how she didn't believe in God. She doesn't just say it once, but every chapter is filled with her disbelief. Also, it did seem far-fetched at times. I did however find it funny and enjoyed it. As far as the animals, yeah, there are several who die, etc. But, I just saw it as small town stuff. Like when the dead baby pig gets thrown to the dog. I myself wouldn't do it, but I suppose some would and see nothing wrong with it in farm life??? If you get easily offended, I would not recommend this book. If you like feel-good, going back to when life was simple books, then you would probably like it.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read in stressful times
Review: If you want to escape the pressures of life today, join Haven Kimmel in Mooreland, Indiana in the early 1970's. Written with wit, insight and imagination, you get to see life through the eyes of a lively little girl who is a keen observer of all that surrounds her. A book you will loan to friends.
Rating:
Summary: Zippy zips along nicely
Review: In my eyes this book may be an instant classic. It is charming, clever, humorous, and dreamy. Kimmel seems to be a naturally excellent writer and storyteller, with the vision and skill to bring Mooreland, Indiana richly to life and fill it with such charming, eccentric, and lovable characters. The book is so positive and heartwarming it almost begs the question of whether Mooreland is a real place or just the product of a charming, benign dream. Either way, perhaps this is a classic. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
Rating:
Summary: Small
Review: The book called A Girl Name Zippy , Zippy the word mean full of
zip , lively and energetic . A Girl Name Zippy , I think the
protagonist of story is a zipper .And she grow up in small town
called Mooreland , Indiana. She is still very active and energetic , so her father calls her Zippy . And her father turned her life over to God .
The book describe Zippy's grown life .A prat of her life , and her family interesting things , her father , her mother , her
friends , her pets and other things .I saw exicted and surpised
.She was very cute and stupid .Then I got a recollection that i was small . I think when i was small . I looked like same as Zippy . Another point , I think every chidren would be silly .
This is because children do not know everything . They must go
through process defecation and many failure . They can be grown
.Become a useful asult . This is my review of the book .
Rating:
Summary: Such fun!
Review: I don't often find myself laughing out loud while reading, but this book is hysterical. I could picture the town, the people, and Zippy!! A wonderful, fun read - pure enjoyment!
Rating: 
Summary: Animal Abuse is Adorable!
Review: An awful book. Growing up, the author's father was abusive, although she never seems to come to terms with it. When a neighbor has the nerve to complain about their dog barking, Dad traps a raccoon, puts it in a cage, and surrounds it with all his buddy's dogs who bark and terrify the creature all night, to "get back" at the neighbor. Kimmel never identifies with all the pain caused to animals in this book, and it's damn near every chapter. My stomach actually flipped reading about staple gunning rabbits to a barn by their ears. Yet, she finds this all adorable. I threw the book out, I wouldn't pass it on to my worst enemy.
Rating:
Summary: Westhill College Eng101B
Review: Mooreland, Indiana, Haven Kimmel's hometown, had around 300 residents when she was born in 1965. Her father nicknamed her "Zippy" because of the way she zipped around, and although Kimmel did not speak until the age of three, she continually observed and took in the world around her. Hers was the world of the small-town Midwest, a place that seemed very simple and very complicated at the same time. Many of the anecdotes in A Girl Named Zippy resonate within the tradition of American memoir, focusing on Kimmel's loved ones. Readers learn about her family, including her "best cat," PeeDink. Neighbors play a large role as well, and number among them an older lady who wears the same dress for 23 days by Zippy's count and scares her because, as she tells her friend Julie, "'My sister says she eats a stew made out of puppies." Each chapter is prefaced with a photograph, and these images add to the depth of depiction within the text. Kimmel's inclusion of writing from her own baby book also serves to illuminate her childhood. Her mother, concerned about her toddler daughter's baldness, wrote, "Now that we know she can talk, all I can say is: dear God. Please give that child some hair. Amen." These interspersed moments allow the characters -- Zippy's own family -- to speak for themselves on occasion, giving this memoir a fullness not always found in personal recollections. Two of Kimmel's most stirring chapters are actually lists enumerating things her father lost and won by gambling: hunting beagles, some money and a stuffed monkey that became Zippy's "most beloved toy." Readers of A Girl Named Zippy will long remember these details, which give the book its special tone -- at times hilariously zany, but with an almost haunting resonance. Kimmel's unflinching portrait of her childhood, not always halcyon but laced with moments of pure joy, represents a fresh look at the Midwest as well as the memoir.
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