Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Loretta Mason Potts

Rate this book
Imagine how shocked you would be if, like ten-year-old Colin Mason, you were the oldest (smartest, best) kid in a family of four, and then you found out that all these years, without knowing it, you’ve had an older sister, an “awful, awful, bad, bad, girl—Loretta Mason Potts.” Who? What? Wait! ... But this is only the first of many surprises that lie in store for Colin, as things get curiouser and curiouser very fast. Loretta (a glum gangly girl and so very very rude!) comes home and before you know it, Colin is secretly following her down a hidden tunnel that leads from a bedroom closet to an astonishing castle, where a charming and beautiful countess keeps court attended by a dapper and ever-obliging general, and in this world everybody loves Loretta (especially when she’s rude), so much so that they’re begging her to stay with them forever. What is the secret behind this mysterious other world and how does it connect to the many secrets in the Mason family? It’ll take a spellbinding, hair-raising adventure, involving not just Colin and Loretta but their mother and the rest of the family, to work that out.

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 22, 1958

7 people are currently reading
229 people want to read

About the author

Mary Chase

18 books24 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
78 (38%)
4 stars
61 (29%)
3 stars
54 (26%)
2 stars
8 (3%)
1 star
4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
Profile Image for Charlotte.
1,475 reviews41 followers
May 13, 2022
I'd have liked this more as a child--the idea of visiting a magical castle that was the size of a doll house would have enchanted me. As a mother, though, it was disturbing--I would never have left a child of mine to live with folks who didn't love or want them, even if the child, the titular Loretta, refused to leave. And though the mother does come through in the end to save all her children, and Loretta is brought home and loved, it didn't make up for that premise with which the story starts.
Profile Image for Maryanne.
Author 2 books36 followers
June 20, 2007
read this over 40 years ago and it stayed with me.
Profile Image for Lisa Hathaway.
11 reviews9 followers
November 19, 2012
One of the oddest children's books ever. Once read,never forgotten
Profile Image for kam.
1,255 reviews246 followers
July 24, 2022
Czy za zachowaniem niegrzecznego dziecka mogą tkwić intensywne i nieporządne uczucia? Czy samotność i poczucie odrzucenia mogą stać się motywem do ucieczki od ludzi, których miłość jest niezgrabna? Odpowiedzi na te pytania zdają się być oczywiste, ale porzućmy proste potwierdzenia na rzecz powieści Mary Chase. Historii o niegrzecznej dziewczynce, która nauczyła się żyć w taki sposób, by dostać uwagę, jakiej została pozbawiona, gdy na świat przyszło jej rodzeństwo. Kierowana zazdrością i osamotnieniem podążyła za słodkimi słówkami kogoś, kto widział rozrywkę w jej złym postępowaniu i namawiał ją do jego praktykowania. I tak wrażliwe dziecko w oczach nauczycieli czy opiekunów przekształciło się w urwisa, z którym trudno sobie poradzić.

Colin nie wiedział, że ma jeszcze jedną siostrę. Żył przekonany, że jest najstarszy i nic nie wskazywało na to, by mogło być inaczej, dopóki przypadkiem nie usłyszał plotkujących znajomych mamy. To właśnie dzięki nim odkrył pewną rodzinną tajemnicę, ale nawet jeśli nie podążyłby śladem niespodziewanych słów — już wkrótce i tak wszystko miało zostać wyjawione. Bo oto losy Loretty oraz reszty dzieci Masonów znów zostają połączone, a problemy w nowej codzienności domowej to nic w porównaniu do tego, co kryje się za magicznym mostem.

Jedynym minusem powieści są spłycone problemy (jak porzucenie dziecka przez rodzica), ale przyznam, że byłam na to gotowa, gdy zobaczyłam rok powstania książki (1958). To takie... Typowe. Większość powieści nie starzeje się z wdziękiem właśnie przez takie sprawy. Dzisiejszego czytelnika może to uwierać i odstraszać naiwnością. Nie skupienie się na tej kwestii wydaje się być niedopracowaniem historii, a próba przekształcenia matki bohaterów w istotę kochającą i dbającą o swoje pociechy, przebiega w sposób, ktory nie przekonuje. Nie aktualnego czytelnika.

Wciąż jest to jednak tytuł dobry. Fabuła wciąga, bohaterowie budzą sympatię, a klimat od razu pachnie mroczną magią okraszoną słodyczą. Powieść pochłania się strona po stronie i trudno się od niej oderwać. Jesli chodzi o mnie — oby więcej tytułów autorki znalazło się na naszym rynku.

przekł. Katarzyna Rosłan

Autorka to laureatka Nagrody Pulitzera!
Profile Image for Ellie.
116 reviews2 followers
April 16, 2020
Kind of an odd book. I suppose I would recommend it to people who like fantasy, but fair warning, it was a bit confusing and hard to follow.
Profile Image for Judy.
3,576 reviews66 followers
June 10, 2020
Mary Chase, best known for her Pulitzer Prize winning play, Harvey, lived in Denver, Colorado.

I'd forgotten all about this book until a friend mentioned that she was reading it. This was one of my sister's favorite books. She checked it out of the library multiple times. I'm surprised that I haven't stumbled across a copy for my own library.

The four-star rating is based on my childhood memory, which was probably influenced by my sister.

2017 update: I found an early edition of this on the thrift store shelves. Mom promptly started to read it, saying that the title was familiar but not the story. Two hours later, she rated it one star.

Something tells me that my rating may change.

Updated rating: This would take its place on a shelf labelled 'realistic fantasy' if I had such a shelf. And it earns a rating of 3.5 from me -- 3 for the story and 4 for the fact that it will probably stick in my mind. It is an unusual tale, which reminds me of Edward Eager's Half Magic.

Written in the 1950s, Colin and Loretta are the oldest kids in a family with five children (not unusual for the times). However, the father is out-of-the-picture. Yep, the parents were divorced. Is that because Chase didn't really have a role for a male character (or a second adult in the story), or was she supporting the idea of divorce? Money is not a problem for this family -- they even have a maid.

This statement appears on page 10; it foretells the story, and applies to life in general:
Colin was to learn as he lived longer that important days often begin like ordinary days.

Here, Chase warns of the dangers of listening to flattery -- a cautionary tale similar to "The Spider and the Fly."
Profile Image for CLM.
2,912 reviews205 followers
June 26, 2009
If Sherwood Smith likes this book, I like this book ... but it is very odd so far. Colin Mason finds out he has an older sister unexpectedly but does not understand why she lives with the dreadful Mr. and Mrs. Potts instead of with her clearly fond mother and her wary younger siblings. It turns out that Loretta was enchanted by magical people who live in the wood outside the Potts' home and she begged to stay there for easy access to this magical realm. But when she returns home to live with her family, everything begins to go wrong in the magical world so perhaps she can create new bonds with her family?

But why does it have a rating of 6.11?
Profile Image for Lee Mckenzie.
Author 32 books19 followers
May 5, 2012
A children's librarian recommended this book to me when I was a child. As an adult I tried to find a copy, but I had the title mixed up and was looking for Laura Mason Potts. By a happy coincidence, and with a little help from Google, I discovered the correct title and was thrilled that the book had been reissued. After forty-plus years, re-reading this book was pure pleasure.
3,035 reviews14 followers
September 5, 2019
This is the strangest classic fantasy novel that you may never have heard of. The author's main claim to fame is having written the novel that became the famous Jimmy Stewart film, Harvey. This children's novel, on the other hand, is a weird book, a very quick read that I couldn't put down once I finally picked it up...but the cover isn't particularly interesting or attractive, until you realize that one of the characters is walking away through a hole in the back of a closet. That, alone, was worth a double-take, but like the other art in the story [by Harold Berson], it's based on scenes that really are within the story, no matter how weird they appear to be. Tiny teacups and giant handkerchiefs, a tunnel from a closet into another world, a children's version of a rather Victorian version of Faery, and a host of other things weave together in one of those stories where parents are either missing or weird. In this case, both, since the father seems to have run off from his very strange wife and his varying number of children. The wife, it seems, abandoned one of the children at a nearby farm, for reasons that are part of the story but still don't make sense, unless you assume that she's not quite sane. From her actions during the story, that is entirely possible, since she makes less sense than any of her children and most of the other adults in the story.
In any case, that doesn't seem to be why the husband left, since he stuck around until after two more children had been born.
The reason why Loretta didn't want to live with her family any more, and why she was taken in by a very odd couple, only make sense out of the corner of your eye, but not when you look directly at anything, and that's part of the story as well.
Halfway between Narnia and Oz, with bits of Edward Eager and E. Nesbit as well, this is a story about losing a family member, getting that family member back, and a bunch of other stuff, including the most amazing windup doll in the world...
I would recommend this to kids about 10 years old who like fantasy but want something really weird and different.
Profile Image for Bryn.
2,185 reviews36 followers
March 7, 2022
Such a strange book! And doubtless made stranger by the fact that I read it all in one night while sitting up with my son, but still, I think even without that circumstance it has a dreamlike quality. First Colin

So what does it all come down to, emotionally? The importance of family, a children's novel in which the adult actually steps in to the magic to save people, the necessity of discipline (not as a euphemism for cruelty or violence) in raising children, the reasons parents do not say 'yes' all the time -- I am glad I read it, but it was really very odd and I'm not sure I found it enjoyable so much as interesting.
Profile Image for Kasia.
58 reviews
June 18, 2022
A gdyby tak zamieszkać w pięknym pałacu? Uczestniczyć w wytwornych przyjęciach, nigdy już nie być nudziarzem czy nudziarą, bawić się i śmiać? To nic, że warunkiem wzięcia udziału w przyjęciu będzie zignorowanie mamy, opuszczenie domu rodzinnego i odrzucenie dobrych manier.

„Kraina za mostem” Mary Chase po raz pierwszy została wydana w 1958 roku, dziewięć lat po „Dzieciach z Bullerbyn” Astrid Lindgren. Czwórka rodzeństwa: Colin, Kathy, Sharon i Jerry mieszka spokojnie w domu ze swoją ukochaną mamą. Ale mama coś ukrywa, w tajemnicy w piątki odwiedza brzydką, starą farmę. Pewnego dnia Colin postanawia ją śledzić. Kiedy dzieci dowiadują się, że mają starszą siostrę, Lorettę, którą mama siłą sprowadza do domu, ich życie drastycznie się zmienia. Dziewczynka jest bardzo nieposłuszna, kłamie, w nosie ma naukę i zasady wprowadzane w domu przez mamę, zabiera rodzeństwu jedzenie, ucieka. Gdzie? To jej tajemnica, którą przez przypadek odkrywa Colin. Kraina za mostem, w której w pięknym pałacu rządzi Hrabina i Generał, nie jest tak urocza, jak mogłoby się wydawać.

To baśń przede wszystkim o sile miłości, o tym, jak bardzo jest potrzebna i budująca. To także historia ukrytego zła. Hrabina i Generał są okropnie dwulicowi, przebiegli, za nic mają miłość, przywiązanie, stanowią ciągłe zagrożenie. To pod ich wpływem dzieci porzucają swoje dotychczasowe dobre życie, by przejść do sztucznego świata ułudy bez zasad. Im więcej w nim przebywają, tym bardziej się zmieniają i oddalają od kochającej mamy. Kraina za mostem okazuje się niebezpieczna, jest jak uzależnienie, które zabija spontaniczną radość i odbiera prawdziwe życie.

Wiek czytelników: 6+
Liczba stron: 220

@wydawnictwo_kropka
@booki_dzieci
Profile Image for yuki..
137 reviews
August 23, 2022
Któż z nas, jak był mały, nie marzył o magicznej krainie, do której mógłby przenieść się zawsze, kiedy chce. O krainie, gdzie beztrosko można by spędzać czas, zapominając o realnym świecie. Gdzie bawiłyby nas magiczne postaci, a czas płynąłby na błogim nic nie robieniu i zabawie. Kto wie, może takie krainy na nas czekały? Tuż za mostem, pośród drzew, w dziurze w ścianie albo za drzwiami szafy? Tylko czy zawsze warto takie krainy odwiedzać..?

To była dziwna książka. Ale dziwnie dobra. To jest właśnie ten rodzaj historii, którą powinno przeczytać się w szkole podstawowej, tylko po to, aby jej wyjątkowe i dość specyficzne wizjonerstwo przyjemnie prześladowało resztę naszego życia. To jest ten rodzaj opowieści, gdzie fabuła rozwija się w niezwykły, nieprzewidywalny sposób i dąży do zaskakującego, a jednak pełnego satysfakcji zakończenia. Uderzająca w tony Alicji w Krainie Czarów, Piotrusia Pana i Narnii ta książka wciąga w niesamowite wydarzenia i sprawia, że chce się przewracać strony jak najszybciej, aby rozwiązać zagadkę, dlaczego Loretta została ukryta przez matkę, dlaczego chce uciec z powrotem do Pottsów, i czy uda się całej rodzinie przełamać rzucone zaklęcie i przywrócić im normalność. To nie tylko pełna przygód opowieść o magicznej krainie, ale przede wszystkim o miłości. Nie tylko tej, którą mamy, ale tej której pragniemy. O złudzeniach i marzeniach. I o tym, że nie wszystkie magiczne miejsca są pełne magii, a pełne dwulicowości i zawiści. I tylko od nas samych zależy, czy uda nam się z nich wyrwać. Odnoszę nieodparte wrażenie, że Gaiman czytał ją również, a szczególnie widać to w Koralinie Jestem wdzięczna wydawnictwu, że odnajduje takie pełne uroku perełki dla młodszych czytelników. Proszę nigdy nie przestawać. ❤
Profile Image for Vincent Desjardins.
334 reviews31 followers
July 3, 2024
This funny and odd book, written by Mary Chase who is most famous for having written "Harvey," has a memorable concept but I didn't find myself really engaging with it on an emotional level. The book starts out promising enough with Colin, the oldest of 4 children in the Mason family, learning that he is actually not the oldest, that in fact he has an older sister named Loretta who years before decided she would rather live with the local dairy farmers, Mr. and Mrs. Potts. The reason given for Loretta living with another family is not all that convincing, especially when it comes to light that even after she moves back home with her real family, she still has access to the fairyland (?) that supposedly she could only get to from the Potts' farm. There are a lot of inconsistencies of logic in the story and it doesn't help that none of the characters are particularly well developed. I think this could have been a great book if the characters and the plot had been better developed. The idea of a mysterious older sibling who is unknown to the other children in her family and her dramatic reappearance is certainly a great starting point for a story but sadly the emotional element behind this idea is barely touched upon. Instead the author resorts to schemes and complications that left me wishing the story had gone in a different direction. The book is humorous in parts and it's a fast read so I did enjoy it while reading it but I doubt it is one I will revisit.
Profile Image for Bonnie.
636 reviews17 followers
August 24, 2019
I read this book many times as a child and adored it. I just reread it (now that it's affordable on Amazon), and it's just as good as I remembered. The story begins when Colin Mason unexpectedly learns that he is not the oldest of five children, that they have an older sister, Loretta Mason Potts. Who is Loretta and why does she no longer live with them? Who are the Potts, and why is Loretta so attached to the hill behind their house? Mysteries abound in a children' book that is extremely well-written, psychologically realistic (despite its venture into magic), with characters with whom you want to spend time. Highly recommended for readers at a fifth to seventh grade level.
Profile Image for Kevin.
1,110 reviews55 followers
July 10, 2017
An odd but fun little book. I had never heard of it but couldn't pass up a New York Review Children's Collection hardback in mint condition for $2. I enjoyed the way the weird juxtaposition between the dream like inhabitants of the castle and their sinister intentions. It was also fun to think of otherwise well behaved children learning to be sassy and disrespectful from a princess and general in another dimension. Dates as to language and style but imaginative and creative. I can see why it is a classic.
425 reviews7 followers
February 19, 2018
In 1967 this book was very popular with my 5th grade students, particularly the girls. I wonder if anyone reads it now. Loretta discovers a door in the back of her closet, shades of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, leading to a land where she is encouraged to be as ornery, rude, and unruly as she wants. This can only lead to trouble. I could see how my 5th graders would like it, but I haven't been tempted to reread it.
I just came across a brief paper I wrote for a Children's Lit class back in the late 70's.
10 reviews
December 6, 2020
I still enjoy reading well-written YA and children's literature, such as anything listed in Alison Lurie's "Don't Tell the Grownups". (I am sorry to relate that Prof. Lurie just died at age 94.) Along those lines, I just finished "Loretta Mason Potts" by Mary Chase, of "Arsenic and Old Lace" fame. The eponymous antiheroine enters the life of a normal family as the surprise eldest sister. She's a disturbing element, to put it mildly. It's aimed at the 9-12 year old demographic but has rewards for adult readers despite a brief, jarring passage of head-hopping.
Profile Image for Mary T.
448 reviews2 followers
January 14, 2023
A very bad book, and not at all like Half Magic as some reviewers have said. The only believable thing in this book is the name of a ballerina doll: Irene Irene Laverne. In this book the children are not like real children, the adults not like real adults, the magical beings not like real magical being, the magic not like real magic. Furthermore, the book is suffused with this oppressive negativity. This is an NYRB children’s book, which is my only excuse for reading a book worse than Enid Blyton at her worst.
384 reviews23 followers
January 21, 2025
This one didn’t really work for me. It’s meandering and extremely repetitive, the POV jumps around in a weird way, and there are so many children in this book whose personalities are not very defined so they all feel the same. The kids all change their behavior, becoming horrible brats after just one visit to the magical realm where their rudeness is found to be endearing, and it just all feels a bit flat and makes the kids feel even more samey.

Comparisons to Edward Eager feel really off because Eager always had very distinctive characters and much more imaginative storytelling.

Profile Image for Yafa Crane Luria.
166 reviews1 follower
March 30, 2022
My favorite book in elementary school

I absolutely loved this book in elementary school. I found it in my school library but could never find it anywhere else. It's got a "vintage" flavor to it and the illustrations are quite old-fashioned as well. PS In elementary school I would have rated it 10 stars.
Profile Image for Erin Robbins.
46 reviews1 follower
June 27, 2022
My mom read this book as a child and recommended it for my kids. She said it stuck with her her whole life and so she had to buy a copy to keep! My kids absolutely adored it! They were so excited to read the story and learn more about naughty Loretta and the people across the bridge. When we finished it, they said “That was a GREAT book!”
Profile Image for Marmot.
534 reviews1 follower
August 31, 2018
I liked how unique the concept of this book was. To find out you have an older sister you never knew about I’d just the beginning. I love old fashioned kid’s books like this. I’ll be recommending this to my 9 year old son!
Profile Image for Freyja.
264 reviews10 followers
March 1, 2025
This feels like Narnia if Narnia had a whole court of White Witches.... Narnia if Edmund Pevensie was the eldest daughter. I really like the siblings dynamic, they all have striking personality and their constant banters remind me of my own siblings. Very funny and silly little book.
Profile Image for Andrea N.
35 reviews
October 25, 2020
Read this as a child. Almost 50 years ago. And kept re-reading it until my mother had to hide it from me. 😂 Finally bought a copy after all these years to read again. Best kids book ever.
Profile Image for Jackson.
2,517 reviews
November 3, 2022
I'd have ended it differently, but it is still a good, untaxing read
12 reviews
Read
May 22, 2023
I read this book in 4th grade and was obsessed with it. So, I bought it to re-read and was not as thrilled as I was in 4th grade! LOL! It's a sweet book though.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.