Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
Saving Books
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman is a delightfully fun
and easy, feel-good book about a twelve-year-old girl who, after her mother
passes away, moves in with her great-aunt in Savannah, Georgia. There she settles
in her new and unfamiliar surroundings and gets to know her long-lost aunt as well
as a quirky set of Southern characters. Tallulah
Caldwell is CeeCee’s great-aunt “Tootie.” A kind widow who was never blessed
with kids of her own, she makes room in her heart and home for CeeCee. CeeCee can’t help but care for
Aunt Tootie, and it isn’t long before she also forms a special bond with the
maid, Oletta. Then there’s the glamorous and sometimes mischievous neighbor,
Thelma Goodpepper, who has a real live peacock and a claw-footed bathtub in her
backyard. She likes to relax in the tub
and watch the stars. Miss Hobbs is another neighbor, but she is not so congenial.
She puts on airs and CeeCee has a bit of fun at her expense. For a girl who’s just lost her mother
emotional healing is long and hard road.
But living with Aunt Tootie and her new friends is a wonderful cushion
to fall back on. In the end we see that CeeCee’s
“…life had begun to blossom as sweetly
as a Georgia peach.”
Beth Hoffman, Saving
CeeCee Honeycutt (London: Pamela Dorman/Penguin Book, 2010), 259.
I recommend this book for any age bracket. It’s heart-breaking, heart-warming, and
funny. Beth Hoffman has such a great writing style you won’t want to put it
down.
Saving CeeCee
Honeycutt was given to me as a gift. I had never heard of the book before
and may have missed this gem if it wasn’t for my friend. I have to say getting a
book is one of the most fun gifts I can think of. The excitement of holding the book in my
hand, seeing the eye-catching front cover, reading the back blurb, and flipping
through the pages floods me with an electrifying thrill. I wasted no time in reading this one—and
loved it!
My book club members also loved it! A year later our book club chose it as one of our reading selections and I was happy to pass my copy
around to several members.
E-Reader
Now, I’m not one to shun technology. I’m not one of those saying, “Cell
phones?! Why do we need cell
phones? Why would I want someone to be
able to get ahold of me day and night?
That’s what I have an answering machine for. I admit I’m not a gadget geek, and I will
never be the one who gets the newest phone before anyone else. I have a dumb phone and I like it. Following in my parent’s footsteps, I’m more
likely to lag behind than lead the pack in technology. Growing up, we were the last ones on the
block to get a color TV. Microwave? Why no, we had a toaster-oven.
Dishwasher? No, my mom had three girls
with perfectly good hands even if my sister was too small to reach the faucet
and had to stand on a chair and clamp her elbows in the sink to keep from
slipping away.
I know, what you’re thinking. “Hey, if you had a Kindle in Vegas, you
wouldn’t have had a panic attack when you were bookless.” (See January 11, 2013 Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand) What I am saying is that I
can’t imagine that the Kindle will still be running on the same program well
into the future. Will you still be able to access all those books you have on
an e-reader when they change the operating system? I mean how long did it take to go from Beta (we
had one with a nifty remote control attached to a 10-foot cord to operate it), to
VHS, to DVD, and now Blu-ray.
The oldest book in my library is Life on the
Mississippi by Mark Twain published in 1917. That’s 96 years old—and I can still read it without charging it! I can still pass it on to others, too! When the current version of the e-reader is obsolete, my book will still be there.
The oldest book in my library is Life on the
Mississippi by Mark Twain published in 1917. That’s 96 years old—and I can still read it without charging it! I can still pass it on to others, too! When the current version of the e-reader is obsolete, my book will still be there.
I agree, Kindles and book readers have their place. I
realize one day, maybe soon, when I need to have two-inch fonts to be able to
see the text, I may break down and use a reader. I love the idea of being able to adjust the
font size! I also think the built-in
dictionaries are awesome. I can see how a reader could and probably should
replace those heavy school textbooks.
Reading at night? No problem! A
Kindle can light the way. All those
things are great advantages I can’t ignore.
But for the time being, I’ll hold out a little longer, and even if I do
get a reader, I hope I won’t give up books for good. I can’t fathom a world without real books.
Can you just imagine one day in the distant future someone
will write an electronic book or “air book,” or “mind book,” or “book implant,”
or something like that about a time when people actually had “real” tangible
books. It could start something like, oh, how about—“It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times. It was a time when people had real books.”
Happy reading whatever your preferred method,
Annette
Comments
it is convenient to take one on a plane or on vacation.And in case of an book addict like Annette she probably get a kick out of holding or rearranging her books once in a while. And just for the record, washing dishes while one is little ( even if they have to stand on a chair) builds caracter !
Can't wait to read "Saving CeeCee Honeycutt"
And as for hand washing dishes,I liked it so much I still hand wash all my dishes... LoL : )