The Good Master (Puffin Newbery Library)

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, wholesome book
Review: "The Good Master" is a wonderful book for children (adults, too!) Set in Hungary, it is the story of Jancsi and his cousin Kate, who comes from the city to live with Jancsi's family in the country. Jancsi has been looking forward to having a playmate, but Kate is not exactly what he expected. She is spoiled, wild, and their description of her as a "screaming monkey" is not far off the mark. After a rocky start, Jancsi and Kate learn to get along, and from there they become fast friends. They have plenty of adventures. For example, you will enjoy their trips to the fair and the circus; traditional Hungarian Easter and Christmas celebrations; a horse roundup; Kate's experience with some gypsies; and plenty more. Through the book Kate goes from spoiled and totally bratty to much more caring and kind- though she never loses her high spirits! This is an appealing book because it is so simple and wholesome. Also, since children love stories, "The Good Master" is filled with old stories and tales that the adults in the book tell to Jancsi and Kate. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has grade-school-age children... get it for them! They'll love it!

Rating:
Summary: Passing it through the generations
Review: I first read this book in 1979 and loved it. In my mind, I was right there with Kate and Jancsi, especially since I was a horse-loving tomboy. Recently, I started reading it at bedtime to my 7 and 11 year-old sons. Guess what...boys love it just as much as girls! They are both utterly entranced, just as I was. After finishing this book, we plan to read the sequel. "The Singing Tree" is a wonderful way to gently introduce World War I to children. It stresses the effect of war on the people and the land by telling about what happened on the homefront. Read all of Seredy's books that you can get your hands on! She is a evocative, entertaining, pacifist writer!

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, enriching book (and not just for kids).
Review: I first read this book when I was ten-years-old. My elementary school library had a copy of it, but I could never find another library with it after I left that school. I am now in college, and "The Good Master" recently resurfaced while I was browsing a used book store. I just finished it, and I still love it as much now as I did as a child.
Young Jancsi, living in a farm in Hungary with his parents, is a boy trying to find his place in the world of men when Kate, his spoiled cousin from Budapest, comes to live with the family. Though initially enemies, Kate and Jancsi soon become good friends, and their fun adventures will captivate any kid. Kate grows from a sickly city girl to a strong little farmer, and she teaches Jansci to notice and appreciate aspects of his hardworking rural life that he had always taken for granted. Though the book only covers about a year, both of them have changed greatly by its end, and Jancsi has become the man he longed to be. The wise, understanding presence of Jancsi's father Marton (the 'Good Master' of the title) can be felt even in the scenes where he is not present. The book paints a colorful, detailed portrait of life in the Hungarian countryside, a culture that few Americans know anything about. Though it's aimed at 9- to 12-year-olds, I would definitely recommend "The Good Master" to adults, too.

Rating:
Summary: A forgotten classic.
Review: I want to echo the comments made by the other reviewers about this outstanding children's book. I was introduced to this wonderful book by my 4th grade teacher who read it to my class in 1980. One would think that a book written in the 1930's and set on the Hungarian plains in the years just before WWI would not appeal to "modern" children. Yet the entire class loved it. I loved it so much that I later read it several times on my own. This book helped instill in me a deep love of reading which I still have over nineteen years later.

A well-deserved winner of the Newbery Honor Award, "The Good Master" is a forgotten classic. Kate Seredy's work is nowhere near as popular with children as are the works of Blume, Cleary, Dahl, and Wilder. It's a shame because "The Good Master" was as good a book as I ever read as a child and I was also a huge fan of the books of all those other authors. Jansci and Cousin Kate from Budapest deserve to be considered along with Peter and Fudge, Henry, Ramona, and Ribsy, Charlie and Willy Wonka, and the Ingalls family as among the greatest characters in children's fiction.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Highlights of My Reading Life
Review: It seems I have always loved the Good Master. In fact, I first encountered it in the 5th grade. Set in pre-world War I Central Europe on a Hungarian ranch, its cast of characters, the sheperds, the old Jewish grocers, the Good Master, Janci, still inhabit my imagination. The main character, Kate, with her guts, compassion and funny bone became, along with Jo March, a personal hero and role model.

This book takes a young reader completely away, visually and verbally, to another place in several other times, and sets his or her senses dancing. Unfortunately Seredy's art has fallen beneath editorial radar This book should be in the personal libary of all upper elementary students who love to read and adults who remember a child's delight in discovering a great read.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful story of love and understanding
Review: This story, set in Hungary just before World War I, is a delightful story of a young motherless girl who learns the meaning of love and family with her uncle and his family out in the country. It can be enjoyed on many levels - family story, historical novel, ethnic traditions from Hungary, etc. Be sure to follow it up with the sequel "The Singing Tree" which tells of the family's life during World War I. Enthusiastically recommended!