The Changeling

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Summary: Every Little Girl (and Big) Should Read This Book!
Review: This book is my favorite memory of my childhood and now I am searching for it for my own little girl. Every young girl should be as lucky as Martha to have someone like Ivy in their life! How bleak my childhood would have been without her!

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Summary: Wow
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read. It made me want to become Ivy, to be able to see everything as magical. She has such a passion for life, and the world is like music to her. Ivy IS poetry. She shows Martha how to enjoy nature, and helps to bring her out of her shell. Without Ivy, Martha would just be a sad little girl. In her own way, Ivy brought Martha to life. This is a book that I was sad I finished. I wished it wasn't over.

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Summary: Sentimental but not maudlin, bittersweet but not kitschy
Review: This is without a douby Snyder's best book, and one of the best children's books of all time. Snyder manages to avoid the sappiness and tidy moralizing that too often mar her books to produce a tale that is sentimental without being mushy (not an easy feat), not to mention hauntigly beautiful. Although clearly aimed at grade school girls, I read it as a grade school boy and found it moving yet remarkably non-cheesy, and have returned to it periodically ever since. Really, there is no better story of the friendship of two young girls in all of Western literature (I'd bet).

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Summary: As Mrs. Smith would say, a BEAUTIFUL book...
Review: Unlike most of the other people who wrote these reviews, I didn't have the luxury of reading The Changeling back in the 70's. (If only...) I read this book first in 4th grade, and I'm now in high school. I came across it in a used bookstore, and about a year later, I decided to read it, since it was sitting, unread, on my book shelf. I loved Ivy, and I wished that I could have been like her, and believed in all that magic. I especially loved the book for all the ceremonies, and it encouraged me to "not grow up too fast" for several years. It was always a great thing to think that Martha and Ivy were still playing pretend in middle school, and so maybe it was okay that I still did in the first year. Another thing that I realize about it though, is that even though it treasures childhood, it does not portray growing up as a terrible thing either. Martha goes to high school, and survives without Ivy. She is happy and has friends, even though she has grown up and become more "normal". I have read it every year since 4th grade, and every year I write my name in the book (an idea which seemed cool in 5th grade). I read a few other books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and the ones I like most were not her most famous ones. I also reccommend the green-sky trilogy, which (I emailed her to ask this, and she replied!!) was indeed based on Martha and Ivy's pretend play in the treetops at Bent Oaks grove. I highly reccommend the Changeling, it can be appreciated by all ages...especially people who are close to children.

Rating:
Summary: I thought I was the only one who loved this book!
Review: What a nice surprise to discover that Martha and Ivy's story was beloved by others. I have reread it many times since I was a young girl, and the beauty and bittersweetness of the story always brings a tear to my eye. A lovely, poetic tale of friendship, loss and letting go. A joy to read.