Rating: 
Summary: great free read
Review: I picked this book up at my school library randomly one day when I couldn't read anoter page for school. It was a great book! I got so into it and could feel for the characters. It was confusing at points but a great way to de stress
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book
Review: I read this book "Child of My Heart" twice in one week. I loved the characters. The Moran Children, Flora and mostly I loved Daisy. I wanted Daisy to be saved and was saddened by "we lost Daisy in March." When Teresa, Daisy and Flora decorated the tree with lollipops I was visualizing it. When they were on the beach I felt I was there with them. I was with them every minute. I did not understand why Teresa had this sexual encounter with the painter. If she was a young and beautiful girl, she could have had an encounter with a young and handsome boy near her own age. I decided that she was impressed with his reputation as a painter and a lover. Teresa was only 15 years old and a 15 year old looks at situations differently than a mature person. She had no idea how serious the situation was with Daisy's health. I read "Charming Billy" and did not like it. So you see we are all different. I cannot wait until Alice McDermott writes another book. Maybe she will write one about a grown up Teresa and the Moran Children.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling
Review: I read this book with great interest, being very sound in characterization and story. I did however find the relationship between Theresa and the painter somewhat disturbing, a jolt or bitter pill to digest. The book on the whole was beautifully written and I found myself-weeks after finishing the book-thinking about the characters and longing to know more about them. I would highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not to my taste
Review: I really expected to like this book. I normally enjoy books that get inside the head of a female protagonist. But this one left me cold. It's the story of Theresa, a beautiful 15 year old living in Long Island who looks after the neighborhood children and animals over the summer. She is also charged with the care of her eight year old cousin, Daisy. The pace is VERY slow and the book takes a long time to get going. To me, Theresa (the narrator) never felt real. She seemed too mature to be only 15. Her smug confidence in her beauty and its power irritated me, as did her passive observations of so much around her. Nor did her actions seem particularly believable. Books that I think captured this age better were "The way I found her" by Rose Tremain and "Joy School" by Elizabeth Berg.
Rating: 
Summary: sad but true
Review: I tout Alice McDermott everywhere I go. No other book but The Hours has put me in a stunned, stumbling all-day trance the way At Weddings and Wakes did, or Charming Billy, and I am neither Irish, from NY, or Catholic. But I forced myself through this one. I expect the happier reviews are written right after completing it, because the final two pages are back to McDermott's usual translucent, heartbreaking-without-sentiment prose. Until then, though, it's repetitive narrative along the lines of And then I, And then we, And then I, ad nauseum. As to specific problems, Theresa seems not just precocious, but egotistical. My children are 22, 19 and 15, very confident, but none of them have had the confidence/egotism of Theresa at fifteen. I can believe her testing her sexuality with an older man before I believe she has that kind of confidence. Moreover, I don't believe what I counted as some days of ten-hour babysitting goes as smoothly, no matter what fantasies, stories and activities Theresa cooks up, as McDermott portrays. Theresa never once loses her patience or gets weary. Nope. Doesn't compute, and frankly, makes Theresa less likeable.
Don't let this distract you from Alice McDermott. Just don't read it as your introduction to her. Read At Weddings and Wakes and Charming Billy.
Rating: 
Summary: dissapointed
Review: I was dissapointed with this book, it was slow, and the relationship between the 15 year old babysitter and the 70 year old painter was odd, and out of character for the babysitter. some parts of this book were too in depth, and some parts left me wanting more. i loved the relationship between 15 year old theresa and her 8 year old cousin daisy, but the ending was abrupt and dissapointing.
Rating:
Summary: Something Missing
Review: I'd add a half star if the ratings permitted. This is an odd book from McDermott. Although all the characters are quite vivid and the mood of an endless summer virtuously spent is so well evoked, Theresa, this pied piper of a main character, is exasperatingly sweet-tempered and altruistic. The narration brims with details aimed at showing what a selfless and thoughtful caretaker Theresa is, and since it's told from the first person, the result is a self-congratulatory air. The sexual attraction between two characters almost 60 years apart in age could have been intriguing, but it was too downplayed and understated to arouse much passion in the reader. And there were other curiosities: Why didn't Theresa's parents notice signs of illness in their niece, even if Theresa was reluctant to report them? Why, in fact, were Theresa's parents so little rendered? Great characterizations, but they skimmed the surface without, at least for me, suggesting strongly enough what was beneath that surface.
Rating:
Summary: "A Disappointment"
Review: I, automatically, read any book that Alice McDermott writes. I began with "That Night" and have progressed through "At Weddings and Wakes" and into "Charming Billy." In each instance it was a joy to watch her writing style mature and blossom--with each book better than the one before. That string was broken with "Child of My Heart." I am glad that all of the neighbors find Theresa to be such an endearing caretaker for their children and household pets. I found her interesting at the beginning. But as it became clear that she was to end up being seduced by the 70-year old painter father of one of her charges, I really lost interest. I had given her more credit--and the author had led me to believe that I should--than to be taken in by this drunken, aspirin-popping seducer of everyone. Maybe there is something in this novel that I don't get--but I finished it more to get it out of the way and to move on than for any other reason. I felt disappointment at the end and can only hope that Ms. McDermott will regain her stride soon.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD CHARACTERIZATION
Review: If you like books about children, hop aboard. In the summer of this year, we are introduced to Theresa, the expert baby-sitter who entertains her cousin Daisy up from Queens Village for the entire summer. Theresa works for the wealthy folk around her area, looking after their toddlers and sometimes walking and taking care of the owners pets. She is so tender towards her cousin Daisy's, it's totally touching. Meet Flora the toddler who is constantly under her care and whose father is a painter, and quite attracted to Theresa.....the Morans kids of Janey, Judy, June
Tony and Petey and the Kaufmans, the Swansons and the rest of the neighborhood. The story line was interesting and the characters more so, but it's a book that will keep you turning the pages as you will want to know what happens to these lovely children who spend their days on the beach and who dream about fairies and lollipops on weeping cherry trees. A good holiday read. Reviewed by Heather Marshall January 15th, 2003
Rating:
Summary: Babysitter Becomes the Town Earth Mother
Review: In immaculate prose, Alice McDermott has created Theresa, a fifteen-year-old babysitter, who cares for several children and pets in her neighborhood, even adopting her cousin Daisy one summer. We learn that Theresa's caretaking is rooted in more than just her empathy and precocity; it is born out of necessity because Theresa finds herself a skycraper of moral sturdiness in a community of adults who, through alchohol, selfishness, and class envy, have abnegated their responsbility to their children, abandoning them as they pursue their self-interests. In contrast, Theresa is compelled to be a caretaker, to impose her moral sharpness where it's lacking. Distant from her parents, she finds solace in playing this earth mother role. She needs to be needed as much as the children and stray dogs need her. Detailed and realistic, the novel shows a heart-broken girl trying to take the slack in a world where adults have forgotten how to love.
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