They Loved to Laugh

By Kathryn Worth Curry and Kathryn Worth

Book Overview

Tears and laughter alternate in this novel of a young girl's growth to womanhood in the 1830's. Sixteen-year-old orphan Martitia is taken into the home of Dr. Gardner, a North Carolina Quaker, who has five lively sons as full of merriment as himself. The boys do their best to get Martitia to laugh, but she is at first overwhelmed by their pranks. Little by little she struggles to become a true Gardner daughter. And in so doing, she grows in humor and in love.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883937167
• ISBN13: 9781883937164
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Bethlehem Books
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 8 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 3 and higher

Customer Reviews

My FAVORITE Book when I was in the 5th and 6th grades

I discovered this book on the elementary school library shelf and took it out at least once a month for two years. I can't believe it's back in print. I will buy one for every young girl I know. I remember that I cried every time I read it, because I felt the charecters were my friends. READ THIS BOOK!

I finally found my all time favorite book!

Like many other reviewers, I also read this book over 30 years ago in the mid sixty's. Until now, I have been unable to find it in a any library or bookstore. I am thrilled to see it in print again, and am buying a copy of it for my daughter.

A True Story About North Carolina in the 1830's!

This book is a true story about the author's ancestors. Her great Grandfather Jonathan Worth was the Unionist Governor of North Carolina from 1865-1868. The Worth Family was Quaker and the Quakers were opposed to slavery. The story takes place long before all that war stuff happened. A young Presbyterian girl, orphaned in an epidemic, is brought home by the Quaker doctor that treated her parents. She is to stay with his family at their farm until they can contact her mother's relations. At first Martitia struggles with learning how to work on the farm as she has lead an idle life in order to keep her hands pretty. Also, Martitia is appalled by the rough ways of the boys (playing practical jokes and teasing) but after awhile, she grows to love the family. The strictly Quakerish grandfather, who disapproves of his family's tendency to laugh ("My son and his boys serves mammon),becomes precious to the girl who eventually decides that she wants to remain with the family instead of going back to an idle life among her relations. This presents some difficulties, as there was a law in North Carolina prohibiting non-Quakers from leaving guardianship of their children to Quakers.This book is a wonderful way of learning about life in the States in the 1830's. After reading the book you will know much more about the Quakers and what they believed, the apprentice system, silk harvesting, domestic chores like bread making and weaving, and the role of the weaver in families at that time!

One of My All Time Favorites

I must have been 11 or 12 when a friend loaned me their copy of "They Loved to Laugh", and I have always wanted a copy of it, but couldn't find it. I am thrilled to find it here. It is a heart warming story that stays in your heart and mind, at least it has in mine. If you loved reading "Little Women" or "Anne of Green Gables", you will love this book! I can't wait to receive my copy. Thank you!

Wonderful!

This was my mother's favorite book from her youth, and it is also mine. The story is so sweet, and you can't help but fall in love with the characters. The only copy I've ever seen is an old tattered copy in the stacks of a huge library. My mother and I have both searched bookstores for years, and I finally found it here! It will be a christmas gift for her, myself, my sister and my niece. Please read this book! I promise it will make you smile.