I Am Lavina Cumming

Once upon a time when I was a little girl, we would get I Am Lavina Cumming out of the library on cassette tapes. We would listen to this story over and over and over in the car to and from various activities... And then CDs took over, we got a new car with no cassette player, and the library got rid......more

So this is a childrens book, but I find the story very touching. This little girl, who has grown up in the wild west with her father and brothers, the only girl with no female influences after her mom dies, is sent to her aunt in San Fransisco to "become a lady". She hates it. She is happy with her......more

I read this as part of a third grade book club I was leading and I thought it was quite good. It is based on the adventures of the author's grandmother, who was sent from Arizona to California for a better education in 1905. Lots of eye-opening historical facts for the kids in the group. They were h......more

Susan Lowell writes a short novel based on stories she heard from her grandmother, the real Lavina Cumming. I lived in southern Arizona for a few years, and now reside in California. Lavina's homesickness felt very close to home, which gave the book special poignancy for me. The style reads a lot li......more

I haven't read this book since I was eleven, and I honestly enjoy it more now as an adult. It's a solid book with some pretty decent writing, although I wish we knew exactly how Lavina and her brothers knew Spanish. Was their mom Latina? Did she teach them? Did they learn in school? That would have......more