J. M. Goodspeed

This review is for the (grade school-aged) children's book The Case of the Crunchy Peanut Butter by J. M. Goodspeed.

This is an older book (published in 1975) so the language is very different than what we are used to now, as are prices of items, names, and other things. A jar of peanut butter was only $0.05. That is crazy to me. As a twenty year old, I have NEVER seen prices that low. The term "congregational minister" was used instead of minister or pastor, as I am used to hearing them called. She used a card catalog as a regular part of her life. When I was a child, those were being phased out but I did use them and I really miss them. The name Andy (short for Andrea) caught me by surprise, because I had never heard a girl called Andy in a show or book from that time period. The school was more lenient, in that she could leave for lunch at home and things like that, which isn't allowed anymore. And also, the terms "queer feeling" and "screwy" were used. "Queer" meant strange back then but we use it to mean homosexual now so that might be confusing for a school-aged child. "Screwy" was a bad word when I was kid, so it kind of surprised me that she used that word. I had to look up the word suet, which basically means the same thing as lard.

Okay, so on from my explanation of the time period differences, the illustration was simple but I liked it.

The narrator (Andy) is slightly annoying. She accuses everybody and their mama before she finally figures out who it is, which is someone she should have thought of in the first place. I thought it was pretty funny when she said that the police officer was nine feet tall, because that reminded me of how I felt when someone tall would stand over me.

It didn't say where the story was set but from the language, such as "yes'm", I think maybe they are in the South but I could be wrong.

It had a good moral to it and it was a cute story. I liked it, I would recommend it, but it's definitely dated and may be hard to understand.… (mere)