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    A Girl Named Zippy
    A Girl Named Zippy
    A Girl Named Zippy
    Audiobook6 hours

    A Girl Named Zippy

    Written by Haven Kimmel

    Narrated by Haven Kimmel

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    This Today Show book club selection is now available on audio.

    Laced with fine storytelling, sharp wit, dead-on observations, and moments of sheer joy, Haven Kimmel's straight-shooting portrait of her childhood gives us a heroine who is wonderfully sweet and sly as she navigates the quirky adult world that surrounds her.

    Kimmel takes listeners back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period: people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateOct 6, 2005
    ISBN9781598875089
    A Girl Named Zippy
    Author

    Haven Kimmel

    Haven Kimmel is the author of The Used World, She Got Up Off the Couch, Something Rising (Light and Swift), The Solace of Leaving Early, and A Girl Named Zippy. She studied English and creative writing at Ball State University and North Carolina State University and attended seminary at the Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Durham, N.C.

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    Reviews for A Girl Named Zippy

    4/5

    890 ratings63 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      "It's a cliche to say that a good memoir reads like a well-crafted work of fiction, but Kimmel's smooth, impeccably humorous prose evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel. Born in 1965, she grew up in Mooreland Indiana, a place that by some mysterious and powerful mathematical prinicple retains a population of 300, a place where there's no point learning the street names because it's just as easy to say, "We live at the four-way stop sign." Hers is less a formal autobiography than a collection of vignettes comprising the things a small child would remember; sick birds, a new bike, reading comics at the drugstore, the mean old lady down the street. The truths of childhood are rendered in lush yet simple prose; here's Zippy describing a friend who hates wearing girls' clothes: "Julie in a dress was like the rest of us in quicksand." Over and over we encounter pearls of third-grade wisdom revealed in a child's assured voice. "There are a finite number of times one can safely climb the same tree in a single day".
    • 5/5
      Laugh out loud funny. Heartwarming and full of charm. Loved it.
    • 4/5
      Being only a few years older than Haven Kimmel and having lived in the same part of the country for part of my childhood was a large part of the reason I enjoyed this memoir of 1960s/1970s small town America. The fact that it was well written and humorous certainly added to my four star rating. I would suggest this book for anyone looking for a memoir with a bit of nostalgia and a touch of humor.
    • 4/5
      I agree with the book jacket quote that it is rare to see a memoir of a happy childhood. The writing has to be good, otherwise it’s like being captive to someone’s photo albums or home movies. The writing here is good and the book enjoyable. It felt strangely familiar and I think I know why. The book hits exactly the same note as the “Leave it to Beaver” TV series. That show was complete fantasy but the small town, happy family, life lessons theme is very similar. What struck me the most was the obvious poverty that Zippy grew up in did not factor in much to her story. I like that it was not left out or minimized. We see it from her happy childhood perspective. From an adult perspective, there is a lot awry with the household.
    • 5/5
      This is a memoir of a happy, if imperfect, childhood. Kimmel has a gift for putting the reader into the mind of an 8-year-old. We learn about the evil old lady across the street, the pharmacist who can't be bothered with kids reading comic books in his store, the horrible neighbors with a sadistic son, beloved pets (chicken love), the freedom of riding your bike all over town (without touching the handlebars), favorite teachers, dreaded band leaders, best friends, schoolyard fights and the miracle of Christmas. But mostly we glimpse small-town life viewed from the safety of a loving (if unconventional) family.I love this girl named Zippy.
    • 3/5
      Audiobook narrated by the author. I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it instead of listening. The author read in a kind of monotone that had me drifting off and then having to rewind to catch what I missed. Otherwise what I did get was quite humorous in a down-home way.
    • 4/5
      Loved reading about getting the dogs for the grumpy neighbor. Also getting the piano
    • 5/5
      A charming collection of stories from a very unconventional childhood. I loved reading this book as it had be snorting and giggling at the antics of the author's family. I felt like I was part of the family by the end and wanted to hear a hundred more stories about them all. I also grew up in Indiana, so a lot of this was familiar but most of it was delightfully new. An unmitigated pleasure.
    • 1/5
      Girl grows up in small Indiana town
    • 5/5
      I loved this book, its charming stories, and the cover image. A beautiful reminder of a childhood I am still experiencing.
    • 4/5
      adult fiction; memoir. Enjoyable, funny, warm.
    • 5/5
      Very funny. Certain descriptions of characters stick with the reader long after the story.
    • 2/5
      So far this is a yawn. If it doesn't interest me more soon I'm going to something else.
    • 5/5
      I bought this book because I had already purchased it's sequel (She got off the Couch). This a a charming autobiography that tells of a childhood that could have gone so very wrong, and instead, against all odds, went so right. Can't wait to read the next one!
    • 4/5
      A fabulous memoir filled with humour, great story-telling, gentleness and an insight into small-time life. Just loved it.Back Cover Blurb:When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people. Nicknamed 'Zippy' for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time where small-time America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period - people helped their neighbours, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.Laced with fine story-telling, sharp wit, dead-on observations and moments of sheer joy, Haven Kimmel's straight-shooting portrait of her childhood gives us a heroine who is wonderfully sweet and sly as she navigates the quirky adult world that surrounds Zippy.
    • 1/5
      Misogynistic. I didn't expect a small midwestern town to have racial or any other kind of diversity issues, but patriarchy rules supreme and infiltrates into the mind of the young. Every woman (+12) is described in negative terms (ex. 'addle-headed', 'crazy", "unintelligent", manipulative, vain, incompetent, couch potato, hypocrite). Girls, undifferentiated females, fare better, but men with their practical jokes, honest religious beliefs, competence and sense of adventure are the true heroes of this memoir. I kept thinking it would get better, but after page 176 I gave up.
    • 4/5
      Haven Kimmel, born in 1965, grew up in Mooreland, Indiana, population 300. Born funny looking, not talking until she was nearly three, she was constantly zipping around the house, thus her nickname, Zippy. She takes us back not just to a different time, but a place not many have grown up in; a very small town, or as Canadians would call it, a village. Growing up a Jarvis, she was not only precocious, but the daughter of a man who was a real character. This is a memoir, so naturally some parts are embellished, but with humour and insightful observations in a way that helps paint a clear picture through the eyes of the child she was at that time rather than including a great deal of re-interpreting from her adult perspective. This memoir, Kimmel’s debut book, was a New York Times bestseller, and I can see why. I can’t say that I loved everything about her story telling to the point of giving it five stars, but I do have to say that, unlike most memoirs, I really enjoyed it. There was honesty behind it, and while I hardly expect someone to remember their early childhood the way a camera might have recorded it—even adults aren’t capable of that—having grown up in a community so small that everyone knew what I’d done whether I’d actually done it or not, I could relate to that part of it. And her relationship with her friend, Julie, reminded me of that of my dad and his best friend when he grew up in a small town on the Canadian prairies, where one does all the talking for the both of them. I am planning on reading her other memoir.
    • 1/5
      Ugh. I read this for a book club, otherwise I would have stopped after the first chapter. This is a supposedly humorous memoir of a girl's childhood in rural Indiana. I found the writing style off putting and trying so hard to be funny that it just really really annoyed me instead.
    • 4/5
      I've been meaning to read this autobiography for several years, as the reviews have always been good. It happened to fall in my lap and I decided it was a sign. I didn't know what I had been missing. It was a great read. I laughed and I sympathized. It's basically the story of a little girl who doesn't fit in anywhere. She's curious, she's adventurous and she certainly doesn't conform. Her parents are a hoot, and I can empathize with her mother, who lets the housework go and reads science fiction. She actually tells her young daughter that she was purchased from the wild gypsies, confiriming Zippy's exact thoughts. Don't wait like I did. Read it very soon.
    • 4/5
      A heartwarming look into the life of a small girl in Indiana in the sixties and early seventies. Does that make you think dolls, starched dresses, bike riding and cornfields? Well, Zippy had a bike but a middle-class well-adjusted little girl she was not. A town troublemaker, left largely to her own devices by a depressed mother, her upbringing is unusual, but her retelling of her story is funny, wry, occasionally warm, and completely memorable.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book, and have recommended to lots of people.
    • 4/5
      I thought this book was so innocent and sweet. It is told through very subtly through eyes of very young, very naive "Zippy".

      There was one part of the book (pg 117) that just cracked me up because I've seen a similar situation play out when my baby sister was just a toddler. It starts out, "There were so many things I was good at. [...] I was also very good at Interview. What follows is an actually transcript from a tape I made with my mother." (Which, I'm going to paraphrase because it's quite long when transcribed in full!)

      Me: "Mom. Mom. Mom. Hey. Let'd do Interview."
      Mom: "Not now, sweetheart. Let me just finish this arm. [Note: she was knitting a sweater.]"
      Zippy the snorts unhappily into the microphone and shuts off the recorder. After this scene repeats several times, increasing in her young fury and impatience, she starts to sing Bible songs and finally her mother tells her to shush up or they'll never play.

      Mom: "Good evening, and welcome to Interview. Let's just go straight to our guest and have her tell us her name. Can you tell us your name, miss?"
      Me: "No"
      Mom [surprised]: Okay, then, is there something else you'd like to tell our audience?"
      Me: "Not today."
      Mom: "Well, then. I guess we'll just sign off. Would like to say good-bye?"
      Me: "No"
      Tape is shut off.

      That just had me giggling because it is such a child thing to do and it was adorable.

      What I liked the most about this memoir was that it was simple. Not in a demeaning way but in a whimsical way. This child was accident-prone, sensitive, bullish, awkward, honest and slightly strange which made her very likable. This is not a tragic story riddle with addiction, abuse, death or sudden epiphanies - it's the story of a relatively normal and happy childhood in a small town. It's refreshing.

      I also thought it was hilarious that her sister told her she was adopted and her quiet, Quaker mother corroborated the story by telling she was traded by the gypsies in exchange for a bottomless green velvet bag and that she had been born with tail. There are several anecdotes similar and each of them is worth reading about.

      What I didn't like: Has nothing to do with the writing, but with the Book Club Questions in the back. The editor missed a pretty glaring error in the question:

      15. Where the Jarvises poor?

      WHAT! What grammatical abomination is that? (Not to mention that at the very beginning of one of the stories, she makes a statement about how none of her brother's teachers like the poor families and therefore gave him a very hard time growing up). But, seriously, "Where the Jarvises poor?" That makes my brain hurt.

      Where they poor what?
      Where they pour what?
      Were the Jarvis' poor? ding, ding, ding.

      For being a #1 NY Times Bestseller and Today's Book Club edition, I'm surprised no one reviewed the book club companion hooked it..

      Book is excellent, witty and deliciously plain all at the same time.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book. Junie B. Jones for grown ups.
    • 4/5
      Delightful memoir. I listened to the second of her books first, so I had a passing familiarity with all the characters. Her voice rings true, and her memories are colored with just the right amount of wry distance. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I read this awhile ago so I'm a bit fuzzy but I recall a hilarious line about a cat without a butt hole or something along those lines. I adore this book and wanted to name a daughter "Haven" for several years after reading it.
    • 4/5
      So many books that seem suitable for discussion are heavy and drepressing; A Girl Named Zippy is a welcome change. Kimmel provides a fascinating glimpse into the Mooreland, Indiana (perennial population of 300) of her childhood through a child's remembered perspective. What makes this different from many memoirs is that Kimmel had a relatively happy childhood. Despite the lack of traumatic events in Kimmel's life, there are still plenty of points to discuss in the circumstances surrounding her youth. Laugh out loud funny stories that just beg to be read aloud make up the meat of the book, but Mooreland is not depicted as a paradise with no faults. I want to know what happened to the people we met here and am looking forward to reading more of Kimmel's books in the future.

      July 2008 book club selection.
    • 5/5
      You've GOT to read this. Laugh-out-loud funny!
    • 4/5
      A book club read. I laughed often and enjoyed the way Haven described her not so perfect life with humor and with a child's view. I preferred this way more so than the other memoirs of hard growing up by Mary Carr.
    • 4/5
      Presented in a series of not always connected vignettes, Kimmel gives us a picture of simple, uncomplicated, untechnical life in the 1950s and 60s, growing up with a mother who is physically present, but mentally off in the land of her books (she seems to have lived almost permanently reclining on the sofa), and a father who could provide a seemingly coherent answer to just about any curious question Zippy dreamed up. Her observations on Jesus and organized religion will have you howling. They are funny without being sacriligious, and insightful far beyond the normal level of an 8-10 year old. There are several other stories written by Kimmel, and I'm definitely planning to explore them.
    • 3/5
      I was charmed by this little memoir, and glad I chose the audio version, which was narrated by the author. Hearing her memories through the various shades and timbre of her speech put just the right zip in the vignettes from her childhood. Thoughtful and humorous and altogether winning.