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Summary: One of the best books I ever read!
Review: This book is hard to describe accurately, but I laughed out loud so many times reading it, sometimes feeling guilty for laughing ... but laughing nonetheless. The scene with the dead baby pig is a prime example. I've unsuccessfully described this scene to two groups of friends, and they all thought it didn't sound funny. But trust me -- somehow Haven Kimmel makes it funny!Zippy is an adventurous, trouble-making child -- and you can't help but love her. Every character in this book is both quirky and believable. If you're looking for a light, funny book that's like a walk down memory lane with an old friend, get this book!
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Summary: A Girl Named Zippy: Top Notch Autobiography
Review: This book was a perfect light read that taught me a valuable family lesson and kept me entertained all at the same time. Some of the smallest things in life can become something very important and memorable in the future. Haven Kimmel (the author) did not have an unusual life, but the way she described her childhood had me laughing with every turn of the page. I recomend this book to anyone who can't find something unique about their life. After reading the book, I will guarentee you will have an unusual quality.
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Summary: Disgusting book
Review: I have now read approximately 1/2 of the book, and am throwing it in the trash. I have never thrown a book in the trash before. I have read about baby pigs being thrown to dogs, horses dying from eating barbed wire fence, rabbits being hatcheted, a chicken being eaten by a dog, dogs dying painful deaths in a number of horrendous ways, and a woman who, after death, was nibbled on by her pet cats. I have heard about the dirty, retarded, dysfunctional people of this town. Everyone appears to be either fat or filthy. I can find no redeeming value in this book. I cannot imagine finding anything funny about this book, unless one has such low self-esteem, that they enjoy laughing about people more decadent than themselves.
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Summary: Positively charming
Review: After reading "The Solace of Leaving Early," I was prepared to enjoy "A Girl Named Zippy" and I did. Haven Kimmel has created an "everyman" small midwestern hometown in the '50s where people knew their neighbors and children grew up with strong relationshps to family and friends. Trust was a given then and suspicion of people one didn't know was rare. It is apparent that Zippy profited from a childhood where she was free to make her own decisions and draw her own conclusions. My favorite character is her dad, who treated Zippy, her sister and brother with the respect that everyone is due and allowed them to enjoy his wonderfully dry humor. He was also not a hypocrite, so they gained an early insight into integrity of character. I liked everyone I "met" in the pages of this wonderful book. I would like to have been Zippy's friend then - and now.
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Summary: Pleasant little book, lacks an arc
Review: I read this book because it was featured on the Today show. I was a little disappointed given the glowing praise it got. It is a pleasant book and the author has a nice writing style. The book is humorous and has a fair number of smiles although few laugh out loud parts. My biggest complaint is that book lacked an arc of a storyline. It is just some memories of her youth in a small town in Indiana. But it is a short book that can be read in a few hours so probably worthwhile.
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Summary: Beautiful
Review: Having grown up on a farm in very rural Indiana, I relate to the author's story on too many levels to count. My family's farm was, funny enough, located the same distance as Mooreland from the "very very big city" of Muncie. To my nine-year-old eyes, Marion was big, Muncie was bigger, and Indianapolis (the city I call home now) was bigger and farther away than my ability to comprehend. The account of her childhood may seem farfetched. What child could remember such detail about the most insignificant pieces of life? The truth is, it doesn't matter. Memory is little more than perception--a recollection not of the actual events or people or places, but of how they made us feel. This book is an astonishing record of her own perception of growing up. It's filled with her own descriptions of and reactions to her brushes with the world. They are disturbing (the butchered rabbits), painful (Dana's abrupt disappearance), heartwarming (her father's church), and charming. Her family life wasn't storybook, and that's what makes it so appealing. Nobody lives in the Cleaver household, and Ms. Kimmel doesn't attempt to pretend that she did. They had problems, but they were a loving family, and the less-perfect facets of her childhood are not sugar-coated or spoken about with embarrassment or apology. Rather, she speaks frankly about them, and even as the child she's describing, reacts to them honestly and without shame. As a child, I tended to attack the world with the reckless abandon Zippy displays. In fact, I think most of us did. Too many of us forget as we age. This book will take you back to those simpler days of growing up, when the most important things you had to worry about were looking both ways before you cross the street and making sure your shoes were on the right feet. It will remind you what it was like to see the world through eyes unclouded by knowledge, unjaded by life, and hopefully you'll remember how satisfying it was to be happy and content and make the best of the hand you were dealt. And maybe it'll spark that reckless abandon we take for granted as children, but need more and more as we go on with our lives.
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Summary: What a wonderful book about growing up in small america.
Review: I first heard about this book on the Today Show. Having grown up on a farm in rural Iowa, I felt connected to this story. She relates many of the same feelings and situations I had as a child. Good to the last page.
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Summary: Laughed myself to tears!
Review: I had put off reading this book for some time, but was finally forced to open it as a book club selection. What a wonderful book! Story after story I kept laughing to myself that "I knew this girl", "I had a friend like this girl", or "I was this girl". Like Ms. Kimmel, I grew up in a small town in Indiana and in fact was born only a year before her. I could identify with so many of the people she new, games she played, situations she found herself in, etc. etc. etc. Interestingly enough, none of the members in my book club over the age of 50 liked this book at all. I guess maybe it's a generational thing, I don't know. I encourage all readers to give it a try. It's short chapters move quickly and should you find yourself chuckling even a little, then it was well worth your time.
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Summary: One of the best (of the many) books I've read this year!
Review: I was quite surprised to read two negative reviews (among all the glowing ones) of this charming and delightful book. I think those reviewers totally missed the point, because they couldn't find the truth in Zippy's story. Zippy is a very imaginative child, prone to exaggeration and flights of fancy. These are qualities she clearly inherited from her parents. We'll never know if the "wicked" old neighbor lady really wanted to kill her; but, Zippy was convinced, and therefore terrorized by this woman. It was Zippy's reality. Who among us hasn't conjured up imaginary demons, scary neighbors and spooky houses when we were children? I have never before read a book that so accurately captured a child's imagination, emotions and reactions to the characters and situations that made her life uniquely hers. One reviewer commented that there was no way that the author could remember the events of her childhood with such clarity and detail. Well, let me assure this reviewer that my brother reminds me regularly all of the horrible and just plain stupid things that I did when we were growing up. How much he actually remembers and how much he has invented is not for me to say. I do know that he seems to possess an amazing faculty for recalling the events of our childhood and beyond. Just because I can't, doesn't mean he's lying, does it? Maybe. But who cares? It is the essence of the experience that is being related. Having grown up in the 'very, very big' town of Muncie that was 'so very far away' I absolutely and positively could relate to every event in this book. By the way, in the name of truth, Muncie is a 30 to 40 minute drive from Mooreland (depending upon whom you are following), which to a young child IS a long, long way. Muncie is a small town by most standards, but NOT if you are from Mooreland. I was so taken by this book that I drove to Mooreland one day to see Zippy's house, the church, and so on. Kimmel's description of Mooreland is dead-on, even more than 30 years later. I loved the story of how Zippy's father handled the threat from the neighbors to poison the family dogs. Anyone who grew up around here can see that happening, believe me. Hoosiers have a very bizarre sense of humor, love to make a point and don't take kindly to being threatened. This book captures those attitudes like no book I've ever read. Another golden moment in the book is when the older sister tells Zippy that she is adopted. The way the kooky parents handle this is absolutely hysterical. Zippy's reaction is unexpected and priceless. Zippy's struggles with religious issues are beautifully conveyed. This sensitive subject is handled with just the right balance of reverence and independent thinking to make anyone appreciate how Zippy relates to the conflicts and contrasts within her home and her community regarding spiritual issues. Kimmel puts a child's spin on an issue many adults are still debating, and she does it beautifully. I recently bought several copies of this book to give as gifts to people whom I know can relate and will appreciate this story. One copy, I am sending to a new friend as a way of explaining the occasionally twisted, but decidedly Hoosier, way of seeing things. I just hope Haven will give us a sequel. Meanwhile, I'll have to read this book again and again. What a brilliant accomplishment by a new author. Bravo!
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Summary: Not as Good as I thought..
Review: I guess I considered a memoir to be more factual. Some of her stories/conversations she couldn't possibly remember at a younger age. I have a 6 yr daughter and consider it important to try and keep up with the mind of a young girl. She did seem very self-centered and bratty. I suppose these can be issues for most girls growing up. I got kind of turned off on her as the book went on. I imagined she was sort of a bully. I guess I probably wouldn't have liked her much, like she said most adults didn't. There were many parts of the book, though, that were funny and thought-provoking.
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