This is the second book by Carol Ryrie Brink about the fictional Ridgeway family. Brink is best known for her novel Caddie Woodlawn, but unlike Caddie, the Ridgeways live in Midwest City, in America, sometime in the middle of the 20th century. Mrs. Ridgeway is a mystery author, Mr. Ridgeway is a Professor of history at the local college, and the three Ridgeway children are spunky, interesting and very individual. Family Sabbatical is very loosely arranged around the eldest daughter's diary, kept during a family year abroad in France, and focuses primarily on the storyline for the children.
In style, this novel reminded me of series such as The Moffats by Eleanor Estes or the Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright, and is going to appeal most to readers who enjoy the family stories of gentle adventure, mystery, and sibling love.
Some thoughts...
Family Sabbatical is not written as a Christian book, but it is very much a Christianity-filled book. The family does not attend church, but they purchase and set up a Nativity scene under their Christmas tree, tell the Christmas story, visit Notre-Dame and talk about the altars and beauty of the place, and a small Catholic school-friend of theirs gets confirmed and goes shopping for a confirmation dress. They also act in very Christian ways towards each other, their neighbours and friends, and animals. That being said, the children mischieviously teach the innocent French governess phrases such as 'shut up', which she uses with delight and complete ignorance at inappropriate times. If you're familiar with how religion is addressed North American mid-century children's literature then this is just like that. Besides the occasional slang, the only possibly questionable content is that the myth of Santa Claus is revealed towards the end of the book, so if that is part of your family culture you will have a few sentences of editing to do.
All in all, we really loved it and it retained its appeal for a more modern audience very well.
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