A treasured gift I received as a young girl. It remains in my collection today.

I remembered this book (particularly the "aunt takes Merry Primrose to a field of primroses for her birthday in the US"), but I didn't remember that Merry had been sent off to the US to her aunt and uncle during WWII. It's typical Haywood (in my memory) - simple, happy childhood stories with minor issues that are easily resolved. For example, Merry is a tiny bit clingy before leaving England, but doesn't seem terribly homesick away from her parents. She did get to bring her dog, which helps.

Glad that I was reminded of this book via a FB group, and that it's on Open Library. I picked the oldest edition to show here, since that's what I remembered, and I think it's the one that was scanned.

Merry is a 6 year old British girl who is evacuated to the United States to live with her aunt, uncle and cousin Jerry. I tagged this historical, but it was published in 1942, so it was actually a contemporary evacuee story. I found it extremely charming--it has a positive vibe to it, but Merry struggles with missing her parents and not fitting in and being teased for her accent and vocabulary. But her aunt and uncle were wonderful (especially Aunt Helen's birthday and Christmas surprises), the teasing stops with an apology when they get to know her, and the little adventures were a lot of fun. Just lovely, honestly.

Very different from the typical Carolyn Haywood book. This was one of my favorites when I was a kid.

It’s WWII, and while other children are being sent to the countryside, Merry leaves England entirely to go live with her aunt and uncle in America.

She meets friends and has fun on her boat ride to the US, but when she arrives, things are hard.

It is challenging at first, living in a new country, speaking differently than others and even using different words. Merry does not like her first few days at school. Gradually everything gets better.

There are some sweet moments, some hardships and challenges, and a dear ending.

Ages: 5 - 10
Reading Level: 1st - 3rd grade

Content Considerations: gee is said a few times. Some children pick on a girl for talking different/not knowing things. There is an illustration with a child only in his swim trunks. There is an illustration of a girl dressing and you see her dress pulled up and her underwear.

I read this with my 4 year old. We laughed when merry went boating, were sad when her dog ate the present she made and unraveled her scarf. Such a good book with fun, engaging stories and uplifting characters!

I can remember reading this driving down telegraph with my mom, going somewhere in Brownstown.

Sweet book for younger readers. A little background information of WWII may be needed and explaining why children were being sent (evacuated) from England to the United States. I appreciated that the book took a look into how some people respond when others are different even in the smallest of ways. The love of family was also quite heart warming. My only fault with this book is that I think the book ended quite abruptly. I was wondering where the rest of the book was!

A sweet, wholesome episodic story. There isn't much of a plotline, but my children (age 4 and 6) loved following the adventures of Merry, a little girl from England who shelters in America with her relatives during the war.

This was one of my favourite books in early elementary! I loved all the books by this author.

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A sweet story about Merry Primrose Ramsay who is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in America during WWII. She and her pet Scottie travel from England on a big ship with lots of other children. At first, she has trouble adjusting to her new school, but soon she makes friends and begins to have fun. At Christmas, she receives a wonderful surprise.