(see primary entry)

I really loved learning about the life of the time in which the book was set, this being more about the people than the setting, where the first book was more about the setting than the people. Laura is a little older and spends much of the book with her family in Candleford, while her mother has more babies, which sounds strange written thus, but the book is set over a longer period of time, and the focus seems to really be the times spent in Candleford. I am now going to start the next book to find out about the early working life of Laura.

Racism warning: a game that Laura plays has an extraordinarily racist name. One paragraph. ( )

This second book in the trilogy is clearly actually the second volume of a single work as even the chapter numbering is continued from Lark Rise! I found this volume much more interesting as it focused more on Laura Timmins and her family. Laura and her brother Edmund get a chance to visit the market town of Candleford (~8 miles distant from their home in Lark Rise) and meet various relatives and family friends. While it still contained plenty of vignettes, it had more of a plot and therefore I found it more engaging.

For anyone reading this review who, like me, has been introduced to these books through the BBC/PBS TV adaptation "Lark Rise to Candleford" I will just mention that so far we haven't gotten to the beginning of that show! At the very end of this volume, Laura has just been offered the position with Dorcas Lane in the Candleford Green post office. She is 13 and is one of the oldest children still in school as most of her classmates have already left in order to work. ( )