The Nickel-Plated Beauty

by Patricia Beatty and Beatty

Book Overview

There it sits, shiny and brand-spanking new, in the storeroom of Mr. Willard's general store. It's a Nickel-Plated Beauty, the most expensive cookstove money can buy. And the Kimball kids have ordered one for their mother for Christmas. Earning the money to pay for it will take all the energy, ingenuity, and sacrificing the Kimballs can muster.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688122795
• ISBN13: 9780688122799
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Beech Tree Paperback Book
• Length: 259 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

The Nickel-Plated Beauty

This is a great story!! It is a story about the Kimball kids. They work all year long to buy a stove for their Mother. Hester has to work all summer at her Aunt's terrible hotel. So she can earn enough money for the stove that costs $27.00. Big surprises happened when I least expected them. I loved the story the whole time I read it. I felt like I was there. But can they get all the money before christmas? Read and find out.It is neat how she bases her characters on real people. Lots of the stuff that happens in the book really happened! And the book also shows what you can do if you work together. If you like this book, try Beatty's Melinda Takes a Hand,and Turn Homeward Hannalee. They are all great books.

Excellent Historical Fiction on the Washington State Coast!

The "Nickel-Plated Beauty" is one of three companion books by Patricia Beatty set on the Pacific coast of southwest Washington State at the turn of the 20th century. The other titles are "O the Red-Rose Tree," and "Sarah and Me and the Lady from the Sea." When recommending them to students in our elementary school library (in Washington State), I compare them "The Little House on the Prairie" series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. In my opinion they are written as well.After reading these books years ago, I took my family on a vacation to the Long Beach (Washington) penninsula where the stories are set and we were able to locate many of the landmarks mentioned in the books. There is the ring of historical accuracy, as well as the cold wet climate of this region.For any students looking for historical fiction from a locale not usually written about, these books are to be recommended. They should appeal to fourth grade students and above.All three of these titles were recommended reading by the Washington State Centennial committee in 1989. I still think they're wonderful and so do the students willing to give them a try!

Funny and feisty!

I was a child when I read this book.Just a little while ago, I wanted to recommend it to one of my nieces, so I checked it out of the library to see whether it was as good as I remembered.It was! Beatty's tale of seven spirited pioneer kids who hatch a plan to earn money for a brand-new stove has suspense, humor and affection. You're turning the pages eagerly until the very end, wondering whether they'll be able to come up with the money for the stove before the hard-headed general store manager sells it to somebody else. Young readers will love the spectacle of kids taking charge and making things happen -- while keeping everything a surprise for their parents.As for the big payoff scene when Mom and Dad are presented with the stove on Christmas morning, well, it doesn't get much better than that. Worth seeking out, for sure.

Family Unity

I read this book when I was in third grade. Some thirty years later I remember this experience as being my introduction to the world of literature. The inspiring story of a family working together for a common goal pulled me in and kept me there. Now I am giving it as a gift to another young reader.