Nellies Promise- possible spoilers

[Pat B]

Now that Nellies Promise is available from more sources let's start the discussion.

[moderator]

Pat, thanks for starting a thread! I ordered the book last week but it hasn't shipped yet. As soon as I read it I'll be sure to post and read here. I'm still a little upset that this book is coming right when school starts since I'll be a full-time college student and I very rarely get an opportunity to read any books other than the loathsome textbook variety. I'll make an exception for this one! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[moderator]

I'm not sure if I'll ever get this book from the online bookseller [img]graemlins/grrr.gif[/img] but I still had questions that are sort of spoilers! How old are Nellie, Samantha, and Nellie's sisters in the book? Since it takes place in 1906, are Samantha and Nellie 12? Or are they still 10? Also, is there an explanation on why Samantha decides to live with her aunt and uncle and not Grandmary?

[schallerwoods]

Not sure about the ages. I read it the night Nellie came and dont remember. But I do know that there was not an explanation for living with her Aunt and Uncle instead of her Grandmother. I would be interested in the answer to that question myself.


Nann

[Pat B]

Samantha lived with her Grandmother after the death of her parents in a boating accident. When her grandmother re married Samantha went to live with Gard and Cornelia. When Samanthas parents died Gard was not married . He could have still been in law school. Grandmary was in a better position to care for Sanantha.

[moderator]

That's what I'm confused about, though...I thought Samantha moved in with Cornelia and Gard just because Grandmary and the Admiral were sailing around on the Admiral's yacht, having a honeymoon immediately following their marriage. I didn't know it was a permanent arrangement. Pages 2+3+7 in Changes for Samantha make it sound like it's a temporary arrangement until they come back. That's one thing that always confused me about the last book. I thought Nellie and her sisters were to stay with Cornelia and Gard, but that Samantha would move back in with Grandmary and the Admiral. In fact, Grandmary writes to Samantha that she is "their" dear girl and they miss her (7). Then at the end of the book, it sounds like Samantha is living with her aunt and uncle permanently (60), and always planned to. [img]confused.gif[/img]

Did anyone else read Changes for Samantha the way I did? In other words, being confused about where Samantha would end up living?

I have an old copy of the book; maybe this is something that was fixed in later reprints, like the date of Cornelia and Gard's wedding. The beginning of the book really gave me the feeling that whenever they came back, be it months or years, Samantha would be living with them again.

I'm going to reread Changes for Samantha today...I need a refresher on this! [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ September 01, 2004 06:42 PM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>

[moderator]

I just read it! [img]smile.gif[/img] Even after reading the book, it still sounds ambiguous to me:

* "'We're very happy, but we do miss our dear girl'" (7). This is from Grandmary. It seems odd that she would call Samantha "our dear girl" unless they were planning on living with her again. The Admiral would not have lived with her before he married Grandmary, so why does Grandmary call Samantha "our...girl?" It doesn't seem to make sense if she had never lived with the Admiral before and wouldn't in the future.

* "'You've got to come to Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia's house...'" (42). This was voiced by Samantha. If she was living with them permanently, wouldn't she say to come to her "her" or "our" house? Later on in the book it was also called "Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia's house" (44), by the narrator.

I don't mean to dissect the book...it just seems like readers needed a little more explanation on how the decision was made. It seems like p. 60 (the last page of the book) just springs it on you that Samantha will live with them.

Maybe the movie will clear up the gap on how they decided where Samantha would live! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[mandasmom]

I think that it would be perfectly natural for grandparents to use "our girl" as a term of endearment for a granddaughter, especially since the Admiral knew Samantha so well and for so long (not to mention that she saved his life on the island). I always thought that she lived with Uncle Gard because his life had become settled since marrying Aunt Cornelia and they were closer to an appropriate age (and temprament) to be parents than Grandmary. I also thought that since they had been married for a while and there were no babies on the way that, although the book obviously never mentioned it, they might have had infertility problems-birth controll was non existent in those days so pregnancy was pretty much unavoidable. I always thought that it was nice that they were able to find exactly what each of them had been missing and create a wonderful family. (ok, I know, they're kids books and I'm reading WAY too much in them. Am I the only one that thought that in the first book of Addy's, that the visiting plantation owner who said how pretty Addy was and that maybe he would buy her to be his indoor servant, had perverted motives?)

[Kathy Henning]

In Nellie's book they also refered to that fact that Sam and Nellie were now real sisters. They also said that Sam really liked taking care of and playing with Nellie's little sisters and they were now her little sisters.

[courtneysunshine]

Melissa I just read Changes for Samantha a few weeks ago and I thought the same thing. I was under the impression that after Grandmary & the Admiral stopped traveling, Samantha would go back to live with them. Of course, they could have been traveling for an extended period of time. Nellie, as I understood it, was going to be staying with Gard & Cornelia. Of course they would be visiting Grandmary often, but they would still be in separate homes.

Kim [img]smile.gif[/img]