Mindy Warshaw Skolsky
Hannah is lonely after her best friend moves away from their Grand View, NY, neighborhood. Between September 1937 and July 1938, the girl writes volumes of letters to her new pen pal, Edward; her grandparents; Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt; and White House secretary Margaret "Missy" Lehand. Her correspondence to and from these individuals is the content of this introspective, leisurely book. The technique reveals Hannah's character nicely. Particularly effective is the description of her ultimate comedown?she misspells "restaurateur" in class and reports to Edward that she had to write the word 10 times. Edward's educational progress through Hannah's long-distance "tips" strains credibility, but her love-hate relationship with cloying Aunt Becky adds a note of humor. Historical texture is effectively woven into the book, with the difficulty of adults finding and keeping work a recurrent theme. Though the author explains in a closing note that the letters are fictional, Hannah's improbable correspondence with the Roosevelts adds dimension to historical characters and her voice is consistently clear and childlike. This title will be of interest to classes studying the Depression and will be welcomed by those who have followed Hannah in her earlier exploits.
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