A Cottage of My Very Own

Appetizer:

I always liked to play house. Not just the game where you and your friends mimic the daily lives of adults, but actually play that I owned a house that I could decorate however I wanted. My benevolent parents had a playhouse built for our backyard and my siblings and I spent hours and hours arranging it as various abodes: a cabin in the backwoods, the proper parlor of a well-to-do British family, the cabin of a pirate ship, and a million other things. Sometimes, I found that I didn’t even want to play the game we were pretending because I just wanted to focus on the joy of creating a warm home environment out of that little playhouse. It was a blank canvas for my artistry. It’s no surprise, then, that part of the reason I loved Mandy was because Mandy herself was fascinated with the process of making an abandoned house her home. In fact, thought the book has many charming elements to it, it’s the little house with its bizarre and lovely shell room that always flashes to mind when I think of this book.

The Main Course: Over the Wall

I don’t know if its coincidental or just adds to the magic that Mandy is written by Julie Andrews. But the book certainly holds the warmth she brings to her acting as you follow the little orphan Mandy on her adventures. Mandy is a well-treated orphan with a kindly Matron and even a friend, Sue. She finds that her life lacks something, though she can’t quite pinpoint what it is. She continually seeks solitude, much to the chagrin of Sue. She wanders around the grounds and finally makes the determination to scale the back wall of the garden. Once outside, she finds a whimsical abandoned cottage, quaintly small and in a perfect state of dereliction. Not only is the cottage abandoned, it’s also mysterious with its peculiar room covered in sea shells. Though the entire book is charming, this is where the reading starts to get really good; Mandy starts to make the house into a home. Her adventures of tidying and “borrowing” (re: stealing) items from the orphanage to beautify the cottage obviously lead to trouble, but the reader is solidly on Mandy’s side. The cottage has a magnetic quality. Often, I would wander around my neighborhood in search of secret abandoned cottages that I could similarly renovate. Unfortunately, there weren’t any. As the book continues, Mandy’s troubles escalate as she starts getting sick on top of the heaps of trouble she’s gotten herself in. The cottage has also been purchased by someone who starts leaving notes for Mandy to find inside. No spoilers here, but the book ends just as charmingly as it begins. It’s a delight throughout. But really, the best part is the cottage decorating. There’s just something so human an elemental in Mandy’s innocent desire to make a place of her own in the world.

Pairs Well With:

The Nostalgic: Chances are, by this point, some of your surroundings at least are under your control. Find a way to spruce your own “cottage” to make it new and exciting again. Rearrange furniture or add an easy DIY project to remind yourself of your power to create something beautiful and unique. Or take it one step beyond and imagine or draw that dream home of yours. If you were to create something new and wonderful for yourself, what would it be like? How would it connect to your deepest desires?

The Benefactor: If I had to venture into being a moralist here, I would say that I think this story is primarily about ownership and responsibility. In the short term, Mandy is not rewarded for stealing or altering what is not her own. However, the results remain positive for her. I won’t try to get into Julie Andrews’ mind here, but I think that there’s a lesson in that. We all crave ownership and we desire stewardship of our things from others. If my book is going to be lent to a friend, I would hope it would return without jam on it as it is property that’s important to me. I want to share it with another because it brings me joy to provide joy for another person, but I want it to be respected as my property. Similarly, if my room is my own, I want to make it reflect the fact that it’s owned and cared for by me. I’m proud when my surroundings reflect care and my values. Give your little reader a chance to express this sort of ownership and discuss the importance of stewardship. Maybe this is allowing them to decorate their room just as they see fit. And be aware that their ideas may or may not be in good taste. That’s not the point. They will find joy in its being a reflection of their desires. I can’t say that decorating my own room led me to make my bed every day without complaint, but I generally kept my room straighter and neater because of it. More importantly, though, I’ve found that that early desire to make a structure a home has allowed me to see hospitality, stewardship, and charity in the adult world as something joyful and elemental.