Flight into Spring

Flight into Spring (Sally (Bethlehem Books)) by Bianca Bradbury
****
Sally Day Hammond was a merry and spirited Southern girl who won the heart of a hardworking and reserved Federal soldier from Connecticut. The book tells of the life after their marriage, with his parents on their farm. Sally expected that everyone naturally thought and behaved the in the manner to which she was accustomed, and found it difficult to adjust to New Englanders and the life in Connecticut. She learns to give up things and learns how to love. This book made me cry in places, because I can identify with Sally, and learning to live with someone with a different personality, who hasn't grown up with the same customs. For example, the first morning in Connecticut, Sally was awakened much earlier that she was used to, and when she went to help set the table for breakfast was told, "We don't use napkins with breakfast here." Sally went on to explain to her husband's parents that she couldn't eat their kind of hearty breakfast, and would just have toast and tea. Her in-laws considered tea a special treat only to be served when the minister visited.

The book chronicles struggles, friendships, fights, and near the end, close to a town-wide scandal, all resulting from the turbulence of different lives and lifestyles brought together.

I was disappointed that the book didn't have more of a Christian perspective, with Sally in one place saying that she thought that hell was a real place, but that she thought that "most of the stories were made up to scare little children."

Younger children may think this book is boring, but older ones may find the telling descriptions interesting, and new wives may be able to identify with some of the adjustments.