{"id":37299,"date":"2020-04-03T17:44:46","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37299"},"modified":"2020-04-03T17:44:46","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:44:46","slug":"review-of-until-tomorrow-mr-marsworth-by-sheila-oconnor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37299","title":{"rendered":"Review of Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth, by Sheila O’Connor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth<\/em><\/p>\n

by Sheila O\u2019Connor<\/p>\n

G. P. Putnam\u2019s Sons, 2018. 356 pages.
\nStarred Review
\nReview written August 24, 2018, from a book sent by the publisher
\n2018 Sonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>:
\n#4 Historical Children’s Fiction<\/p>\n

Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth<\/em> is a story told through letters. The setting is 1968 in a small town named Lake Liberty. Reenie Kelly is staying at her grandmother\u2019s house with her big brothers Billy and Dare. She has just gotten a paper route and she\u2019s determined to show that an eleven-year-old girl can do just as good a job as any boy. She wasn\u2019t able to meet Mr. Marsworth, since he didn\u2019t come to the door, but she puts a friendly note in his milk box.<\/p>\n

Mr. Marsworth answers with a friendly note in the milk box back to her. He doesn\u2019t want to meet her, but says, \u201cAny child of Betsy Kelly\u2019s will be a perfect papergirl, I\u2019m sure.\u201d He sends a P.S. with his sympathy about her mother\u2019s recent death from cancer.<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s been some time since your mother passed away, but she was among the best this world has known. Such a strong young heart. How terrible that she left this earth too soon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So begins a wonderful correspondence. Reenie is nothing if not loquacious, and she doesn\u2019t have friends yet in Lake Liberty, so she pours out her thoughts to Mr. Marsworth.<\/p>\n

She does already have another pen pal \u2013 a soldier named Skip fighting in Vietnam. But she doesn\u2019t like to send him any bad news. And some bad news like trouble with bullies does start to come up.<\/p>\n

But Reenie\u2019s biggest worry is that her oldest brother Billy has turned 18 and that he\u2019ll get drafted. She is trying to save money on her paper route so that he can afford to go to the University of Missouri. If he doesn\u2019t go to college, surely he\u2019ll get drafted. She doesn\u2019t realize that their family is bankrupt because of paying for her mother\u2019s cancer treatments.<\/p>\n

Mr. Marsworth agrees with her that she should try to keep Billy from being drafted. It turns out that he was a conscientious objector during World War I and spent time in prison. The town still dislikes him for that. Reenie gets Billy to go to Minneapolis to talk to the folks at the Draft Information Office about how to become a conscientious objector. But when Billy writes a letter to the Tribune<\/em>, the whole town turns against them and their troubles with bullies get much worse.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the basic outline of how things begin. But leaves out the charm, the life and spunk of Reenie\u2019s letters, and the gentle wisdom coming from Mr. Marsworth. You fall in love with both of them. I was moved to tears before the book ended, and in a good way.<\/p>\n

sheilaoconnor.com<\/a>
\npenguin.com\/middle-grade<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/until_tomorrow_mr_marsworth.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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