This was, bar none, my favorite childhood book, and I had hundreds of books as a child. It has occasionally haunted my dreams even as an adult. I have searched for it for many years. Now that I have a daughter of my own, I am so thankful to be able to find this book again. We read it together every night, after all the other miscellaneous bedtime books. This one is really special.

I have been looking for this book for my daughter because it was clearly my very favorite book when I was a child. The description of the other dolls in the book and all of their individual attributes sent my imagination reeling. I also remember learning how to find beauty in all things from reading this book. A must read for girls everywhere!

I still have the 1962 paperback edition and the pages are so brittle. I get all choked up reading it to my own daughter now, as I used to when my mother read it to me. It is 30 pages and tells the tender story of a girl named Betsy and her decision to bring her Best-Loved doll to a party. It is a doll that has seen better days. She had many other choices, but she followed her heart. Moral: True beauty is on the inside. I treasure this book as much as Betsy does her doll.

This book kept my interest all the way through to the very end. I highly reccommend it.

A lyrical, beautifully written story which captures the imagination of children and adults. The writing is so wonderfully descriptive that you can taste the sweet and sour appleas and hear the sound of the cricket. This story was one of my favorites, as a child, and now it is a favorite of my nieces and nephews.

This series of books (Happy Little Family, Up and Down the River, Schoolhouse in the Woods and Schoolroom in the Parlor) is a wonderful set of stories about five children and their adventures. My friends and I affectionately refered to them as the "Bonnie books" and they will be enjoyed by those who love the Little House books, The Saturdays' series, the Sydney Taylor series (All of a Kind Family) and the current American Girl phenomenon. Highly recommended!

This is such a gentle, old-fashioned little book that it is a small miracle it's still around. It's about Jamie, a mute boy who lives with his sisters and widowed father in the hollows of Appalachia. The boy feels like he can't do anything and isn't special in any way, until Christmastime, when a teacher offers him a chance to be a shepherd in the school Christmas pageant. This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him. But then the pageant is cancelled because of a blizzard, destroying his dream.

In the end, a poor, traveling couple appear. The woman is about to have a baby, and they are looking for any place, even a barn, to spend the night, but so far no one has had any room for them (Sound familiar?) Jamie's family gives them shelter, the woman has her baby, and finally Jamie gets his chance to be a shepherd -- he shows up in costume to bring the new baby a gift, and to speak his very first words. A Christmas miracle!

One of the things I love most about this book is the fact that Jamie is far from a perfect little boy, but the author obviously loves him and makes us love him and recognize that his anger and tantrums come from frustration over his handicap. No one yells at Jamie and tells him to behave. They find ways to help him behave. There is a Christian spirit of love and generosity coursing through Rebecca Caudill's portrait of this child.

An earlier reviewer was offended by how "unrealistic" the ending seemed. I don't think that's really true. Early in the book, Jamie's father talks to a doctor, who tells him that Jamie is physically capable of speaking, but he needs help learning to do so, help the family can not afford. Jamie's inability to speak seems to be more a matter of trauma (his mother died giving birth to him) than anything physical, and so it does not seem remotely unrealistic for him to be healed when something in his life gives him a sense of importance. He simply has to speak to this miraculous child!

But more than that, this is a Christmas story. And if we can't make room in a Christmas story for miracles, when can we?

This book is a family favorite. We read it aloud nearly every Christmas, along with "A Christmas Carol," "Gift of the Magi" and "Whistlin' Dick's Christmas."
I can never read it without choking up, and my kids end up finishing it for me. A real heart-warmer.

this is a great story .... I read it to the Rotary Club members several years ago and all felt the Spirit of Christmas.

I really didn't like this book. I haven't read it in a while cause I read it like 4 years ago but I remember not liking it. It was pioneer book and had accents in the book that really annoyed me. Also it had things like 'oh no! the indians are coming to burn down our cabin that we just built' and 'that mean man is trying to take away our house and our land that we have worked so hard for...'that really bothered me. I am a fantasy lover so this review might not be the best review to go by, I also had to read it in school so...^^ I don't recoment it but if you like reading southern accents and indians burning down cabins and stuff, knock yourself out!!!

I really liked this book. If you like books about other cultures this is your kind of book. Please read this book.You will not regreat it. The person on top of my review does not know what he or she is talking about!