Cynthia Sally Haggard's Blog: Cynthia Sally's Blog, page 52

THE STONES OF GREEN KNOWE (GREEN KNOWE #6) by Lucy Maria Boston

[image error]In this last, sixth novel of the series, we say “goodbye” to our friends at Green Knowe. In this farewell volume, published in 1976, twelve years after volume five, we see our favorite characters Tolly, Mrs. Oldknow, Toby, Alexander and Linnet. And we meet some new ones, Roger d’Aulneaux from 1120 when the house was built and his family: father Osmund, mother Lady Eleanor de Grey and his grandmother (unnamed.)

We do NOT, however, say “goodbye” to Miss Bun, Dr. Biggins, Ida, Ping or Oskar who made their appearance in volume 3, suggesting that Mrs Boston realized she had gone off track in that story.

I enjoyed learning the history of the house that always was a character in its own right in this series, I loved the time travel and found the stones an intriguing way of explaining how these children from different ages came together to make the fabric of the house.

This is a beautifully written book that will expand the vocabulary and imagination of your favorite middle-grader. Five Stars.

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AN ENEMY AT GREEN KNOWE (GREEN KNOWE #5) by Lucy Maria Boston

[image error]Like Volume 4, Volume 5 is about a stranger who arrives at Green Knowe. However, this stranger is no gorilla trying to find a place to hide, but a creepy academic woman (Melanie D. Powers) who tries to force Mrs. Oldknow to do something that is the last thing in the world she would want to do.

However, Mrs. Oldknow has two plucky boys to back her up, Tolly (her great-grandson) and Ping (whom we met in Volume 3, who she has now adopted.)

The boys do everything they can to help Mrs. Oldknow ward off the unwanted attentions of Melanie Powers…and chaos ensues.

I will not say more, so as not to spoil the story for you. I enjoyed this volume, probably because I love spending time in the company of Mrs. Oldknow. (I didn’t care so much for Volume 3, where she was missing.)

Again the writing is vivid and atmospheric. A perfect gift for that Middle-grader in your life. Five Stars.

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Author’s Show Interview, in which I talk about FAREWELL MY LIFE, drops today!

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Learn more about our dreamy violinist Grace, her sharp-tongued sister Violet, her vivid mother Angelina, and her sinister suitor Mr. Russell…

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A STRANGER AT GREEN KNOWE (GREEN KNOWE #4) by Lucy Maria Boston

[image error]In this fourth novel, Ping, one of the displaced children from the third novel becomes the protagonist when Mrs. Oldknow invites him to stay at Green Knowe.

This novel has none of the fantasy or mysterious happenings of the first three. Instead it tells the story of how an escaped gorilla winds up in Mrs. Oldknow’s garden, and how Ping looks after it.

Again the writing is delightful and vivid, with the author giving us a particularly sensitive account of what it might feel like to be a large beast, far from home, shut up in a zoo.

Perfect for Middle-graders, this book is highly recommended. Five Stars.

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Reading Sundays: THE MARRIED MAN (Part 8) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

“If you think I’m going to let you visit your fancy-piece, you’ve got another think coming.”

“Come on, Beat. Let it go. It’s over.”

“I’ll never let you go. Do you hear me? Never.” Usually when someone tells me ‘never,’ I know they don’t really mean it. But when Beat said it—it’s hard to explain. It’s almost as if her whole body gave meaning to her words. I had the eerie feeling that I was in front of some creature I couldn’t comprehend, like an adder whipping its head forward to bite. My hands shook as I stood there facing her. I didn’t want my voice to shake too, so I waited a moment, telling myself it was ridiculous to be so scared of a woman. After all, I was stronger than her.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Beat,” I said eventually. “Let me out.”

She stood there, glaring, her thin body coiled as tightly as a piece of barbed wire. I relaxed for a minute, then when she released some of that tension, lowering the rolling pin a fraction of an inch, I shoved her hard, knocking her to the floor. Not waiting to see how she was, I left the house, ran down the path, and out into the quiet road as if I had the demons of hell behind me. I slowed, once I realized no-one was following me. Shuddering, I sat down on a bench in a bus-stop, and dropped my pack to the ground. My hands were shaking so badly, I could hardly light up a cigarette. I must have sat there for a good half hour until I calmed down. Then I walked south, into the Surrey countryside, and spent the rest of the night sleeping under a hedgerow.[image error]

***

The pages that follow are blank. A new entry begins haphazardly, scrawled halfway down the page:

“I’m forty-one years old and getting married for the first time tomorrow, on Saturday June 21, 1930. At least, that’s what I tell my wife-to-be. I wasn’t thinking of marrying Emmy, until Mother Nature took her course, and now my girl’s in the family way. Though Emmy’s a girl no longer, being over thirty, another reason for being a bit surprised at her condition. [To be continued.]

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THE RIVER AT GREEN KNOWE (GREEN KNOWE #3) by Lucy Maria Boston

[image error]Having enjoyed the first two volumes of this series, I imagined I would read another charming tale about Tolly and his great-grandmother Mrs. Oldknow, and some children from yet another century. Imagine my surprise when these two main characters are no-where to be seen. Instead, we have two elderly ladies – Dr. Maud Biggin (an anthropologist) and her friend Miss Sybilla Bun – who have rented Green Knowe for the summer while Mrs. Oldknow (and Tolly) are away.

Needless to say, Miss Bun is fond of food, while Dr. Biggin is an eccentric academic, who never stands straight (a) because she is looking for objects on the ground or (b) because she is reading a book.

Dr. Biggin has a niece (Ida) and the two ladies think it would be a marvelous idea to invite Ida and two refugee children from the Society for the Promotion of Summer Holidays for Displaced Children. (This novel was published in 1959.) Thus we also meet Ping (Chinese) and Oskar (presumably German or Austrian.)

As the two ladies do not take their guardianship responsibilities very seriously, the children are free to roam around. And roam they do, on a canoe, up and down the river which winds past Green Knowe.

Although I found many details of this novel charming (especially its lovely descriptions of the wildlife that inhabit the river) I must say I did not find this novel as compelling as the two first. I missed Mrs. Oldknow, Tolly and the various beings in the house, and personally would have preferred another novel in which Tolly meets some other children connected with the long history of Green Knowe (which was built in the 1200s.) Four Stars.

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THE CHIMNEYS OF GREAT KNOWE/TREASURE OF GREEN KNOWE (GREEN KNOWE#2) by Lucy Maria Boston

[image error]Tolly, our protagonist from the first of the series is now 9 and half a year has passed since the last novel. This time, we meet some children from the early 19th-century: Susan, who is blind, her companion Jacob, her unkind brother and his equally bone-headed friends. While the first novel was about Tolly getting to know his great-grandmother Mrs. Oldknow, and the children the 17th century (reign of Charles II), this novel very quickly becomes a quest to find some jewelry, stolen back in the early 19th century.

As ever, the writing was vivid and delightful, and the prose sang. A good present for the Middle-grader you know. Five Stars.

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THE CHILDREN OF GREEN KNOWE (GREEN KNOWE #1) by Lucy Maria Boston

[image error]I loved this book as a child. I loved reading about an old country house where mysterious figures flit about. I loved reading about Mrs. OldKnow who rules over the many beings attached to this house. I was always hoping I would be invited to such a house so that I could explore.

The children of Green Knowe include not only Tolly (short for Toseland) our 20th-century protagonist, but three children from the past: Toby (another Toseland), his brother Alexander, his sister Linnet, and their various animal friends.

This historical fantasy blends past and present, the tragic deaths of children in plague-ridden England of the 17th century with the more predictable life of the mid-twentieth century. The climax of the novel happens when a tree suddenly comes alive…

I read and re-read this novel over & over again when I was ten. Now that I am considerably older, I am glad to have a copy again. Five Stars.

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Reading Sundays: THE MARRIED MAN (Part 7) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

She folded her arms, and glared. “Robert Prisley Caveley, I declare you are one of the selfishest individuals to ever inhabit this earth. You don’t care about me. You want to move on because you’ve found someone else.”

“Beat—“

“Don’t you dare deny it.” She picked up a rolling pin. “Or I’ll brain you.”

I hadn’t noticed the rolling pin until now. Was she joking? I looked at her sharp visage, harsh lines outlining her nose and mouth.

“Beat, there’s no need to get so het up.”

“I’m telling you, if you say one more word—“

“What are you going to do, Beat?”

She brandished the rolling pin. It would have been as funny as a Punch and Judy show[image error] except for the expression on her face. Her blue eyes glittered with a hard, almost demonic quality. There was a flush of pink on each narrow cheek, but it didn’t make her look more attractive, it made her look mad. Without a word, I fled upstairs, fumbling for my haversack, throwing in my belongings.

When I came downstairs, Beat was standing in front of the door, rolling pin in hand, barring the way.

“Beat, let me out.”

“If you think I’m going to let you visit your fancy-piece, you’ve got another think coming.”

“Come on, Beat. Let it go. It’s over.”

“I’ll never let you go. Do you hear me? Never.” Usually when someone tells me ‘never,’ I know they don’t really mean it. But when Beat said it—it’s hard to explain. It’s almost as if her whole body gave meaning to her words. I had the eerie feeling that I was in front of some creature I couldn’t comprehend, like an adder whipping its head forward to bite. [To be continued.]

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Victoria Holt’s THE TIME OF THE HUNTER’S MOON

Victoria Holt was one of those authors I loved as a child, and it wasn’t until I was nearly grown up that I realized that she, and Jean Plaidy, and Philippa Carr, were actually all noms-de-plume of the same person, Eleanor Hibbert (1906-1993).

Recently, I picked up a novel I had not read before, [image error]THE TIME OF THE HUNTER’S MOON written under the name of Victoria Holt, as it is a gothic romance. And what a creepy book it is. I haven’t felt unsettled for such a long time, not since I read Diana Gabaldon’s OUTLANDER 15 years ago. The creepy young man who appears in a forest in Switzerland in the first part was making it difficult for me to get to sleep! Subsequently, I stayed up until 3 am this morning, because I just couldn’t put it down.

Of course, one could argue that the plot is predictable, that it is the familiar tale of a beautiful young woman sought after by three young men, who has the puzzle of sorting out which one would make the best husband. But Victoria Holt is so good at creating atmosphere and plot twists that it doesn’t matter. Of course, it is a cliche that abbey ruins encourage young women to imagine all sorts of things. Jane Austen had great fun sending that up in NORTHANGER ABBEY. But what is so wonderful about this novel is that there really is something to worry about. It’s just not what you think it is. Five stars.

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