For me and other adult readers of children's books, The Willoughbys is a tasty little treat. For young readers, I am not sure what they will make of it. And it matters to me what they will make of it.The Willoughbys is, from start to finish, a playful joke, a parody that pokes fun at "old fashioned" children's stories while at the same time referring back to them by name and character. Lowry
new posts in all blogs
Blog: Children's Book Reviews and Then Some (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: humorous, parodies, aalphabetical: w, New in Hardcover, aauthor: Lowry, polemic warning, Add a tag
By: Tanya,
on 3/19/2010
Blog: Children's Book Reviews and Then Some (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Mystery, Series, aalphabetical: m, Reading Level 5, School Story, polemic warning, aauthor: Stewart, Add a tag
By: Tanya,
on 8/21/2009
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: polemic warning, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 2 of 2
Blog: Children's Book Reviews and Then Some (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: humorous, parodies, aalphabetical: w, New in Hardcover, aauthor: Lowry, polemic warning, Add a tag
6 Comments on The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry 157pp RL4, last added: 3/19/2010
Display Comments
Add a Comment
Blog: Children's Book Reviews and Then Some (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Mystery, Series, aalphabetical: m, Reading Level 5, School Story, polemic warning, aauthor: Stewart, Add a tag
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, illustrations by Carson Ellis (best known for her cover art for her husband's band The Decemberists and illustrator of Lemony Snicket's picture book, The Composer is Dead) is the wildly popular first book in what is soon to be a trilogy with books two and three being illustrated by Diane Sudyka, another wonderful artist with a style very
2 Comments on The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, illustrations by Carson Ellis, 496 pp, RL 5, last added: 8/24/2009
Display Comments
Add a Comment
Sounds interesting for an adult reader, definitely. My interest is piqued. (But WHOA! <I>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</I> as a kid's book? The issue of racism is so complexly presented in that particular book that it needs to be read very carefully and at multiple levels by all readers.)
I think Huckleberry Finn was considered a kid's book when it was written... And, people of a certain generation (pre-baby boomers) read stuff like that and Dumas' Three Musketeers and Bronte's Janey Eyre when they were kids since there wasn't the kidlit market there is today. I think Lowry is trying to remind readers of those classic books in a silly way with The Willoughbys...
Hey, Tanya, I like your blog. I am an adult lover of kids lit, especially YA fiction. My daughter & I have been listening to the Percy Jackson series on CD, which is great fun.<BR/><BR/>The Willoughby's sounds interesting to me . . . I'll have to check it out of the library. <BR/><BR/>Have you read The Mysterious Benedict Society?<BR/><BR/>I'll be back to explore your blog more
thanks for your kind words! it's great to meet another adult lover of kid's lit! I love listening to books on CD, too. I have started reading "The Mysterious Benedict Society" and was a bit bored by it. It LOOKED like the kind of book I would have loved as a kid and the idea sounds so perfect, too, but I'm having a hard time getting into it. I do plan to finish it and
I thought this one was fun. I haven't read the Series of Unfortunate Events, so I wasn't making comparisons to it. I do have to wonder if I thought it was fun because I "got" a lot (though not all, I'm sure) of the references.
I wonder what kids think of this book. I always ask kids what they think of books when I am at work, but I'd love to find a way to bring kids into the blog conversations that we adults have about kid's books. We definitely are reading these books in a different way and getting different things out of them.