When I first opened Dear Daddy Long Legs I thought it was going to be written in chapters like the novels I was used to reading, but to my surprise it was written all in letters! I heartily enjoyed these books as the pages were filled with wit, amusement, and charm. Jean Webster not only had great talent to create real and lifelike characters but also a sense of impeccable humor making these short books easy and digestible to read especially after a longer or heavier book. 

 

Dear Daddy Long Legs starts with Jersuha Abbot, an orphan living in the John Grier Home run by Miss Lippett. Jershua is forced to work hard and care for the younger orphans at the asylum. The novel starts on a Wednesday when the trustees visit the asylum. During this visit Jershua is told that a trustee is going to put her through college. The only condition is that she must regularly write letters to him.  Jershua knows very little of this trustee except that he is tall, thus begins her letters to Daddy Long Legs. 

 

Jershua fills her letters to Daddy Long Legs with college misadventures, basketball and sports, shopping, and studying, and summers with her friends. Jershua never fails to amuse the reader, her friends and acquaintances, teachers, and anyone else she meets. Dear Daddy Long Legs was a cheery book with a happy ending for our heroine.  On the whole Dear Daddy Long Legs was an enjoyable book with real characters, dramatic events, and a triumphant  ending. I feel obliged to recommend this book to any reader. 

 

The sequel to Dear Daddy Long Legs is Dear Enemy. Dear Enemy follows Jerusha’s spunky college friend Sallie McBride. Sallie finds herself in quite a predicament when Jerusha asks her to run the very orphan asylum she had once attended as a girl, the John Grier Home. In the novel Sallie writes letters to her “enemy”, Jershua, and Gordon Hallock; the man that she plans to marry. Sallie continues to remind Jershua that her position is temporary even as she begins to grow found of her life at the John Grier Home and the orphans in it. 

 

Throughout the novel Sallie is faced with challenges from all difficulties. From bandaging knees, to love troubles , and to tremendous catastrophes Sallie handles all scenarios with a cool head and her wittiness. 

 

Dear Enemy kept me interested in the characters, adventures, and drama and was definitely a page turner for me! 

 

I highly recommend these two short books if you are wanting to read something quick over the weekend. I definitely will not be forgetting Jean Webster and her two clever and witty books next time I find myself in a bookstore or library. These two novels show just how rewarding it can be to try out a new book style or a different genre and I challenge you next time you are in need of something to read to try out a new genre. Do you usually read classics? Maybe try a more recently written book. Do you find yourself digging through long novels? Maybe find yourself a collection of short stories and poems. It is not only important to expand our reading and knowledge but you never know when you might find your new favorite book, novel, short story, or poem.