I'm not going to give this a rating because I didn't read the main body of the book containing Opal's diary. I only read Benjamin Hoff's biography of Opal at the beginning and his additional information at the close of the book. Opal was certainly a precocious child. I admire her love of nature and desire to share that with others in a very concrete way. However, the language in the diary was not something I wanted to tangle with. She used a sort of faux-French syntax that was just plain irritating, and much of what she recorded was just mundane life events. Furthermore, she gave her animal friends very long names that were hard to remember. Every time you encounter one, you have to refer to the list at the front to remember which critter it is. Here's a little sample of her weird writing style from page 156: "Today after I so did leave a message on a leaf away up in a tree for him, I did have a going in along the lane..." See what I mean? The whole diary is written like that.Here's a wonderful review from someone who loved the book, and actually read it all the way through: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71612123
The Drift Of Things
To yield with a grace to reason
I'm not going to give this a rating because I didn't read the main body of the book containing Opal's diary. I only read Benjamin Hoff's biography of Opal at the beginning and his additional information at the close of the book. Opal was certainly a precocious child. I admire her love of nature and desire to share that with others in a very concrete way. However, the language in the diary was not something I wanted to tangle with. She used a sort of faux-French syntax that was just plain irritating, and much of what she recorded was just mundane life events. Furthermore, she gave her animal friends very long names that were hard to remember. Every time you encounter one, you have to refer to the list at the front to remember which critter it is. Here's a little sample of her weird writing style from page 156: "Today after I so did leave a message on a leaf away up in a tree for him, I did have a going in along the lane..." See what I mean? The whole diary is written like that.Here's a wonderful review from someone who loved the book, and actually read it all the way through: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71612123
