Madonna Book:

The Kitchen Madonna: 2 Reviews:
Worth it
2008-07-02 - Perhaps the only way you can get this now is to pay for a used copy. I don't know. I do know that if you're contemplating it, and you can at all manage, it is worth it. This is a gentle, kindly book. Doesn't it seem like there are very few of them being written any more? Instead of poking you, or dragging you, it takes your hand, as a friend does, and takes you somewhere wonderful, and says it's okay to believe in love. Okay to teach love.

I don't know about you, but to me, that's worth an awful lot.

Lovely book!
2008-02-20 - I fell in love with this book as a child, and was lucky enough to find a copy of this edition recently at a library used book sale. It's a beautiful story of a young boy's love for his housekeeper - a love strong enough to cause him to bravely come out of his shell in order to create the icon she longed for. Beautiful book, one to read over and over again.

A heartwarming story
2007-10-14 - Rumer Godden is a consummate storyteller--and this is one of her most accessible tales.

Peter is a very introverted little boy, perhaps because he has been taken care of by a string of nannies and housekeepers or perhaps he is just that way by nature. But his latest housekeeper/nanny is Marta, a Ukranian who barely speaks English. She is an unhappy exile from her homeland, and is sad because the kitchen has no "good place"-- an altar with candles and an icon of Mary and the Infant Jesus. At home, the kitchen would have been a warm and cozy place with a candle-lit icon twinkling with little jewels in a dim corner.

For some reason, Marta's inchoate expression of her homesickness touches Peter, and he goes about making an icon for Marta. The story of how he finds materials to make the icon including foiled toffee wrapper "jewels" is a great little adventure and the puzzlement of Peter's parents, who have written him off as cold and strange is delightful. In the end, both Peter and the family are changed by the "good place" in the kitchen but more so by the lesson that doing something wholly for someone else has rich rewards.

My favorite book...
1999-12-16 - Let me put it to you this way...I am considering buying this book for $45 and I am a poor college student. The most touching story of childhood generosity ever.

An unsentimental tale of a young boy's devotion to his nanny
1999-05-07 - Rumer Godden delivers another unsentimental children's story that explores the quiet devotion that Peter has to his Ukranian housekeeper. A solitary boy who does not liked to be kissed or hugged, Peter scours London for a "Kitchen Madonna " that will make his homesick nanny feel welcome. In the course of his search, Peter makes new allies and discovers that even he needs the warmth and companionship of his family and neighbors.