Laura E. Richards, a late nineteenth and early twentieth-century author best known for her girls' series about "Queen Hildegarde" and the "Three Margarets," as well as her Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of her mother, Julia Ward Howe, who penned the words to The Battle Hymn of the Republic, relates the story of twelve-year-old Melody in this brief ninety-page children's novel, published in 1893. Orphaned as an infant, when her mother dies in the poor house, blind Melody is adopted by the Dale sisters - stern, but kind Aunt Vesta, and the gentle invalid Aunt Rejoice - and raised in a simple style in their small New England village. With a beautiful voice and a kind heart, she wins a special place in the life of the village, and is sorely missed when a traveling showman overhears her singing and, unable to convince Vesta Dale to part with her, kidnaps her from her home. Will Vesta and Mr. De Arthenay - a talented fiddler known as "Rosin the Beau" - be able to track her down...?

I enjoyed Melody: The Story of a Child, although I don't think it is the equal of some of the author's later work. There is far more self-conscious piety here than in books like Queen Hildegarde or Three Margarets, with Melody exhibiting a saintly temperament, and converting all around her, from quarreling villagers to her own kidnapper, to a more virtuous, godly frame of mind. On the other hand, it's quite interesting to see the sympathetic portrait of a young blind person that is painted here, given the fact that Richards' father was Samuel Gridley Howe, the reformer who, amongst other things, founded the Perkins School for the Blind. One certainly sees the influence of his work in this brief tale. I've become quite interested in Laura E. Richards' juvenile fiction, so although this isn't destined to become a favorite, I will be continuing with the series, and reading Marie next. Recommended to readers who enjoy 19th century children's fare, as well as to fellow admirers of the author. ( )