The Willoughbys

by Lois Lowry

book data

1,238 ratings, 3.72 average rating, 522 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		23%
4		37%
3		26%
2		9%
1		1%

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published

March 31st 2008 by Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books

binding

Hardcover, 174 pages

literary awards

E.B. White Read Aloud Shortlist (2009)

isbn

0618979743 (isbn13: 9780618979745)

description

Abandoned by their ill-humored parents to the care of an odious nanny, Tim, the twins, Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and their sister, Jane, attempt to ful...more

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01/13/08

Elizabeth rated it:

Read in January, 2008

As in all good old-fashioned stories, this one involves the four Willoughby children. There is Tim, the oldest, who is very bossy. Jane is the youngest and has a hard time sticking up for herself. And then there are the twins A and B. The children are essentially good kids, but their parents are the worst sorts. Negligent and wasteful, they concoct a plan to leave on vacation and sell their house while they're gone (hopefully ridding themselves of the children in the meantime). To the youn...more As in all good old-fashioned stories, this one involves the four Willoughby children. There is Tim, the oldest, who is very bossy. Jane is the youngest and has a hard time sticking up for herself. And then there are the twins A and B. The children are essentially good kids, but their parents are the worst sorts. Negligent and wasteful, they concoct a plan to leave on vacation and sell their house while they're gone (hopefully ridding themselves of the children in the meantime). To the young Willoughbys' aid comes a nanny of remarkable talents, a rich but sad benefactor, and a host of odd characters. In the end a happy medium is reached and everyone is happy, though perhaps not in the way you might expect.

When Lemony Snicket referenced works of children’s literature from the past in his own books he did so with the express purpose of showing how orphans in dire straits are more appealing when they are miserable than when they are happy. He was eventually able to mold this into larger themes touching on ideas like “What does it mean to be good?” and “To what extent are you culpable when you engage in an evil act, no matter how pure your intentions might be?” “The Willoughbys” does not stretch so far and, in fact, takes an entirely different tactic altogether. I’ll admit that for the first twenty or thirty pages of this book I felt that I was reading a slightly skewed Unfortunate Event. Then, all at once, it hit me. This wasn’t a Lemony Snicket knock-off! This is a book that reveals the ludicrous nature of any classic work of children’s fiction. It plays with the tropes like they were taffy in the hand. Orphaned babies, malevolent parents, sad rich benefactors, it’s all here. There are more hearts of gold than you can shake a fist at, but all the while you get the distinct feeling that Lowry is playing with you. She is perfectly aware of what she is doing and whether she intends to or not, she’s making a mockery of those current children’s novels that purposefully try to invoke the staid seriousness and style of classic literature from the past.

If I were a person prone to predictions, I might say that this is precisely the kind of book that is going to divide people. Some parents are going to enjoy this book tremendously (particularly those that make it to the Glossary at the back). However, there are just as many people out there who are going to take one swift glance at the Willoughby children’s heartfelt desire for dead parents and flip out. Kids who cheer on the deaths of their parental units do not always charm the hearts and minds of readers everywhere, I am afraid. Even when the parents deserve it entirely it’s still unnerving to hear a sweet six-year-old girl implore, “do let’s wish for a helicopter-and-volcano disaster!” It’s utterly silly but not everyone will get the joke.

If you stick with this book you’re bound to enjoy it. And if children can enjoy the massive hoards of pseudo-Victorian/Gothic novellas currently being churned out then they’ll probably get a lot of the jokes in this book. They’ll love the boy who doesn’t speak German but thinks that he can (“Schlee you later, alligatorplatz!”), and the nanny that disguises herself as an Aphrodite statue to scare off potential buyers of the Willoughbys’ home. It’s a great book for kids and adults alike. Perhaps it is not for all takers, but those with a keen sense of humor and a taste for the bizarre will enjoy this winsome tale of the beastly, the diabolical, the irascible, and the unkempt. An auspicious departure.(less)

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07/02/08

Jackie rated it:

As a scholar of 18th and 19th century children's literature, I was immediately drawn to a book purporting to be a parody of "old fashioned" books. But I was unimpressed by Lowry's actual novel. Perhaps because I had in mind a definition of parody that means something beyond just a "funny" imitation; most parodies are written to ridicule or satirize the genre they imitate. Lowry's book doesn't imitate to critique, or to satirize. Or perhaps it is because Lowry's idea of "...more

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04/30/08

Jeanette rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, juv-middle-grade

Read in June, 2008

Author Lois Lowry who gave us Number the Stars, The Giver, A Summer to Die and 30 + other children's stories has now given us The Willoughbys, a clever, tongue in cheek parody of "old fashioned" classic children's stories.
I loved the tag line for this book as soon as I saw it on the cover. "A novel nefariously written & ignominiously illustrated by the author." If that does not hook your attention then maybe the book description will: " 'Shouldn't we be orphans?' o...more Author Lois Lowry who gave us Number the Stars, The Giver, A Summer to Die and 30 + other children's stories has now given us The Willoughbys, a clever, tongue in cheek parody of "old fashioned" classic children's stories.
I loved the tag line for this book as soon as I saw it on the cover. "A novel nefariously written & ignominiously illustrated by the author." If that does not hook your attention then maybe the book description will: " 'Shouldn't we be orphans?' one of the Willoughby children suggests one day. The four are, after all, part of an old-fashioned kind of family, and their parents-well, their parents are not all that one would hope for. The Willoughbys concoct a diabolical plot to turn themselves into worthy and winsome orphans. Little do they know that Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby have already begun to formulate their own thoroughly despicable plan inspired by another favorite bedtime story: the tale of Hansel and Gretel..."

I laughed and snickered my through this whole book. Lowry included a bibliography of "books of the past that are heavy on piteous but appealing orphans, ill-tempered and stingy relatives, magnanimous benefactors, and transformations wrought by winsome children." Books such as Anne of Green Gables, James and the Giant Peach, Heidi, Jane Eyre and Mary Poppins are included. The novel is full of literary allusions to and parodies of these tales as the Willoughby children strive to be old-fashioned, winsome orphans. The story is full of twists that kept me laughing and rooting for all the characters from the Willoughby children to their Odious Nanny and the Melancholy Tycoon but not for Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby. :-)
One of the most enjoyable and humorous parts of the book is the glossary. Here you will find such definitions as "Villainous means typical of an evil person. Very obnoxious. You could have guessed that, of course, since you already know the word villain. In old movies, villains almost always has mustaches. I don't know why." And "Meticulous means extremely precise and careful. Surgeons have to be meticulous. Some people think great cooks are meticulous, but they are wrong. Great cooks read a recipe, maybe, but they ignore the instructions and add extra garlic if they feel like it. Surgeons can't do that."
Unfortunately, I would not be at all surprised to see this book end up on a banned book list. I imagine there will be some people who look past the humor and wit and see only a book about kids and parents who are trying to do away with each other but to quote from Lois Lowry's website, "this is a humorous book, of course, and no one is recommending that real children do away with their parents. (Unless, of course—heh heh—their parents are as outrageously awful as Mr. And Mrs. Willoughby!"(less)

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04/06/08

Monica Edinger rated it:

bookshelves: childrensliterature

I was and am a BIG Lemony Snicket fan. And once I came across Edward Gorey in high school I was smittened too. I like Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and other snarky writers enormously. But for whatever reason, this book didn't provoke the same response from me as the works of those writers do. (Gorey's Hapless Child is my all-time favorite.) The Willoughbys was just...okay. (I keep going between two and three stars. Two for my personal response, three because I respect what the author is doi...more

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04/05/08

Marjorie rated it:

Read in April, 2008

I remember being told, perhaps six or seven years ago, that Europeans considered America to have no proper sense of irony. Things have changed since then to such an extent that our even our eight-year-olds can understand a well-aimed dry parody. Or at least I hope so, because otherwise there will be no audience for this remarkable little book. Lois Lowry, a master of children's literature in deadly earnest ( The Giver frightened me to death, and remembering it still does) has produced The Willou...more

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04/23/08

Lara rated it:

bookshelves: childrens, just-for-fun

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Lara by: Meagan's April pick
recommends it for: Highly imaginative adults and children.

What a fun book! I would say the charm of the book is more in the winsome narration than in a page-turning plot or gripping characters. Great throw-back to silly literature like Roald Dahl. I loved that the characters all wanted to be winsome orphans. That was just like me. As a child always wanted to be tragically kidnapped or stricken down by a terrible disease.

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5 comments

01/04/09

Audrey rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Not at all what I would've expected from Lowry. Personally, I'm a fan of many of the "old-fashioned" books that she parodied. This is a children's book (at least, it's shelved that way at my local library) but kids won't get many of the references or humor here, which means that it's really a book for adults masquerading as a children's book. When I first started reading, I felt it reminded me quite a bit of the Lemony Snicket books, so young readers might relate a bit more if they've ...more

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12/27/08

Elizabeth rated it:

Read in February, 2009

This is a slim novel with a big conceit (and by conceit I mean "an elaborate and strained metaphor," including the glossary at the end that defines difficult words). I found it wasn't satisfying as either a book standing on its own, or as a parody.

The Willoughbys are an old-fashioned family, Lois Lowry tells us. In the style of Roald Dahl, the parents are awful but the four children (and eventually their nanny) are resourceful and determined. Unlike Dahl's books, though,...more This is a slim novel with a big conceit (and by conceit I mean "an elaborate and strained metaphor," including the glossary at the end that defines difficult words). I found it wasn't satisfying as either a book standing on its own, or as a parody.

The Willoughbys are an old-fashioned family, Lois Lowry tells us. In the style of Roald Dahl, the parents are awful but the four children (and eventually their nanny) are resourceful and determined. Unlike Dahl's books, though, the broad strokes that define each character are not painted artfully enough to give them depth. I found myself not really caring about any of them: they were too fake; they were too cliché. Lowry compounds this by telling us the characters' personality traits, sometimes inconsistently, rather than showing us through their behavior. For instance, we're told late in the game that the Commander was always happiest in his laboratory, inventing different candies. His wife obsessively cleaned and alphabetized his lab every night, destroying his projects. So now he's happy she's gone. No, wait, wasn't he sad about her loss at the beginning of the story – so sad that he never went back into his lab? Either the Commander loves his wife or he doesn't, but for no useful reason Lowry denies him true feelings and implies that he has forgotten whether he loved her. As a result the poor Commander loses depth as a character.

The cleverness overwhelms the funniness. There's a long build-up to a joke involving the Commander -- a candy maker -- unsuccessfully naming his new chocolate bar creation after his baby, Ruth. He names the bar Little Ruthie and it's a flop. (Ba dum bum.) Ok, I don't require knee-slapping humor in every book, but cleverness masquerading as humor is boring.

The story is a parody of "old-fashioned" children's books, without the richness and originality or resonant themes that made those books classics. And even as a parody, it's dated. I'm 43 years old, and I haven't read half the books in Lowry's bibliography. Honestly, Toby Tyler (1923) and Ragged Dick (1867)? Even The Bobbsey Twins (1924) is a stretch for modern readers. Other books she references may be recognizable to adults as cultural icons, but I venture to say they're probably not widely read anymore, and even their movie versions are dated enough that children may not know them (Heidi (1872), and Pollyana (1913).) And are the middle-grade readers of The Willoughbys ready to think about tackling Jane Eyre? All of the books referenced are from 1934 or earlier, other than James and the Giant Peach (1961). Yet I don't think kids will be drawn to the original sources the way they are presented in The Willoughbys (as old-fashioned and stereotypical), which means young readers will also never appreciate the parody Lowry presents of those classics. That's the double-jeopardy of the conceit, I guess. This novella is not an irreverent middle-grade introduction to the classics, it's a one- or two-hour-long amuse-bouche for librarians.

A note on the illustrations: It seems that Lois Lowry is respected enough to be allowed to do her own illustrations this one time. It's just too bad that the editors didn't persuade her not to. The black-and-white line drawings are only passable in skill, and they don't enhance the story (they illustrate precisely what's described). The illustrations shouldn't have been squandered on her, when there are struggling artists out there who could have made their introduction with this book.(less)

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04/05/08

fairrosa rated it:

bookshelves: 1-3grade, 2008, 4-6grade, bestbooks, childrensbooks

Read in April, 2008

I found this one utterly charming. Yes, I know that this might not be the most original concept -- the satirical tone and hurtful humor. However, I do see how it would strike a core more easily with young readers than some of the more sophisticated and ironic works. I laughed out loud several times through the book and was very happy that this has a "very old-fashioned" ending. I intend to read it aloud to my 4th graders and see how they react to it. I might be surprised -- they m...more I found this one utterly charming. Yes, I know that this might not be the most original concept -- the satirical tone and hurtful humor. However, I do see how it would strike a core more easily with young readers than some of the more sophisticated and ironic works. I laughed out loud several times through the book and was very happy that this has a "very old-fashioned" ending. I intend to read it aloud to my 4th graders and see how they react to it. I might be surprised -- they might simply miss the point and hate it. Will report soon.

Here's what I just wrote (May 12th) on my Rationale for nominating for Notables discussion:

This is an unusual book. Although there has been satirical work done for children, for some reason, this one really stood out for me. Maybe because Lowry simply has a way with words, or maybe because from the beginning, one sees that BOTH children and adults are “despicable,” or maybe because even though many “old-fashioned” books are made fun of, the story winds up being an Old Fashioned book itself: the newly formed family of the Willoughby children, the Millionaire, the baby, the nanny, and the Millionaire’s son becomes a truly sunny and warm unit once all the unsavory characters are “gotten out of the way.” The more I think about this book, the more I share it with young readers, and the more I delve deeper into the psyche of the characters and the readers, the more I am convinced that this is indeed a very special offering in 2008.
----------------------

As I predicted -- many of the 4th graders that listened to the first chapter could not detect the subversive tone at all. They said, "I hate it -- they are SO mean!" But some definitely saw the connection between this and some of other titles they have loved: "The parents remind me of Matilda's parents." or "I like when the mother cuts off the curls.. it's so funny!" And a few expressed curiosity as to what's to come. One said, "This probably is the kind of books that start off boring and you have to get through the first two chapters and then you love the book." I hope I have more chances to read it to them next few weeks and see how they react further.(less)

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04/04/08

Jen rated it:

bookshelves: booksfornephewsandnieces

Read in April, 2008

Lemony Snicket gave The Willoughbys a rave in Publishers Weekly, so I had to read this clever, slightly twisted children's book. I loved its offbeat take on "old fashioned stories" - the four children wish they were orphans, and their irritable parents wish they had no children (and can never remember the daughter exists). The humor is dry and I laughed out loud several times while reading this on an airplane, which kept waking up the guy sleeping next to me.

There are also ...more

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03/25/08

Jill rated it:

bookshelves: middle-grade-fiction

Read in March, 2008

This Lemony Snicketish novel features the four Willoughby children who long to be "old fashioned," like the characters in many of the books they love like Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, and James and the Giant Peach. Tim, the oldest, is the rather bossy leader of his siblings: identical twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B (A and B for short), and the youngest and timid Jane. It's very clear from the beginning that their parents are well--not that much into being parents. The banker father ...more

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07/01/08

Eva rated it:

bookshelves: children

Read in June, 2008

A fabulously tongue-in-cheek parody of "old-fashioned" books like Mary Poppins, Little Women, the Bobbsey Twins, The Secret Garden, and so on. All the elements are here - orphaned siblings, a nanny, a grieving billionnaire, neglectful or awful grown-ups - but they add up to more than the sum of their parts. The characters are well aware of their roles. At one point, Nanny says, "Oh, lovely! You are an old-fashioned family, like us. We are four worthy orphans with a no-nonsense...more

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02/28/08

Brooke rated it:

bookshelves: books-read-in-2008

Read in April, 2008

A rare misfire from Lowry -- this is a satire of various motifs found in "old-fashioned" kidlit: plucky sibling orphans, dastardly villains, prim nannies, long lost sons, babies left on doorsteps, etc. The premise and setup are good, but the characters -- especially the four Willoughby children -- come off as more caustic than funny. I think a lot of these jokes are going to wink straight over the heads of most kids, and some of them (such as the casual "girls are no good at any...more

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11/23/08

Nono rated it:

bookshelves: childrensjuvenile

Read in November, 2008

a fun change for Lois Lowry. Reminiscent of the Series of Unfortunate events. A foursome of rather repulsive children and their even more repulsive parents meet their proper ends. All ends happily, in a matter of speaking.

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11/25/08

Debbie rated it:

bookshelves: books-read-with-my-kids

Read in November, 2008

recommended to Debbie by: susan the librarian
recommends it for: all

i learned that lois lowry can be really funny. this was penderwicks with tongue in cheek. i loved it. i like her science fiction but i hope she tries funny again, this was like scary movie for old fashioned novels.

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02/19/08

Edie rated it:

Read in January, 2008

This is just a wonderful book with lots of appeal to the entire family. Fans of Lemony Snicket will love it and it is more subtle and charming than that series. Lowry has even done the illustrations. Take four children who need to be orphaned, a Nanny who won't stand for comparison to the diabetic coma inducing Mary Poppins, a young survivor of an avalanche who makes up his own words (like shoenschmitl--my version) and a baby who would have been cute until her hair got chopped off and you have ...more

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05/10/08

KT rated it:

Read in April, 2008

I liked this book a lot, and enjoyed the parodies of classic children's novels (and especially enjoyed the annotations of them at the end). It's fresh, funny and original, but for me is marred by the reference to the parents going to "darkest Africa to tame the heathens." I know it's in in the spirit of the novels it's parodying but I still thought it was an unfortunate choice on the part of the author. It would keep me from recommending it for a classroom read-aloud and from giving it...more

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01/23/09

Meryl rated it:

such a horrifyingly silly book! its laugh garrenteed!!

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02/18/09

SJKessel Castleman added it

Lowry, L. (2008). The Willoughbys. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

9780618979745

Lois Lowry, made famous for her explorations of distopias and historic moments in The Giver (1993) and Number the Stars (1998), went in a more humorous direction with The Willoughbys. I had wanted to say ‘a lighter direction,’ but alas, that would be mistaken. The plot features a family of four children attempting to rid themselves of their parents so they may become orphans. Do...more

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12/07/08

Jennifer rated it:

bookshelves: children-young-adult

I was delighted with the little novel, and I feel that "delighted" connotes perfectly the mild surprise, smirks, and enjoyment that I derived from this novel. Beware, however, if you pick up The Willoughbys because of your recognition of the author, Lois Lowry, whom most of us know best for her Newbery-winning The Giver. This novel is nothing like it and is much more cheeky than serious. The Willoughbys is the wry tale of four would-be orphans, an abandoned baby, nanny, candy tycoon...more

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Of the official picks this year, which is your favorite for YABC's book of 2008?

The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger's Apprentice, Book 1)

Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

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Tunnels

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The Book of Dead Days

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The Alchemyst

3 votes, 25.0%

Runemarks

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King Dork

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The Ruins of Gorlan

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Breaking Dawn

2 votes, 16.7%

Flipped

2 votes, 16.7%

Graceling

3 votes, 25.0%

The Willoughbys

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The Tales of Beedle the Bard

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quotes from this book

""We are four worthy orphans with a no-nonsense nanny." "Like Mary Poppins?" suggested the man, with a pleased look of recognition. "Not <i>one bit</i> like that fly-by-night woman," Nanny said with a sniff. "It almost gives me diabetes just to think of her: all those disgusting spoonfuls of sugar!"" More quotes...