The Lambkins

by Eve Bunting, Jonathan Keegan (Illustrator)

Kidnapped.
Injected with a shrinking formula.
Held prisoner in a bizarre dollhouse. Kyle Wilson, once a regular kid, is now the size of a doll, but still alive. He is the fourth Lambkin in crazy Mrs. Shepherd's collection. She'll keep them safe, she says. She loves them like her own children, she says. She would never harm them ... as long as they don't make her angry. John made her angry. Look what happened to him. One thing is certain. Kyle and the others must figure out how to escape, and fast. Otherwise they'll end up as Lambkins forever ... or worse.

Genres: Juvenile, Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Teen

192 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Also known as Evelyn Bolton and A.E. Bunting.

Anne Evelyn Bunting, better known as Eve Bunting, is an author with more than 250 books. Her books are diverse in age groups, from picture books to chapter books, and topic, ranging from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. Eve Bunting has won several awards for her works.

Bunting went to school in Ireland and grew up with storytelling. In Ireland, “There used to be Shanachies… the shanachie was a storyteller who went from house to house telling his tales of ghosts and fairies, of old Irish heroes and battles still to be won. Maybe I’m a bit of a Shanchie myself, telling stories to anyone who will listen.” This storytelling began as an inspiration for Bunting and continues with her work.

In 1958, Bunting moved to the United States with her husband and three children. A few years later, Bunting enrolled in a community college writing course. She felt the desire to write about her heritage. Bunting has taught writing classes at UCLA. She now lives in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

In Eve Bunting's 2005 late middle grade and early young adult novel The Lambkins, a seemingly harmless looking woman suddenly and with no explanation as to why shoves fourteen-year-old and first person narrator Kyle Wilson (who had offered his assistance when she claimed to have a flat tire) into her car trunk and knocks him out with a hypodermic needle. And when Kyle wakes up again, The Lambkins shows him being about eight inches tall and trapped in a creepy prison-like dollhouse alongside three other having been rendered tiny youngsters (baseball prodigy Mac, violinist Tanya and four-year old Lulu, who is being trained by their captor to be the next Shirley Temple), with the middle-aged woman who has kidnapped and shrunk Kyle, Mac, Tanya and Lulu being one Mrs. Shepherd, being the widow of a brilliant scientist, who, just before his death, had developed and perfected an injection to shrink people (and to also keep them small and in miniature with weekly booster shots).

Now regarding The Shepherd (as the children call their captor, what their name is for Mrs. Shepherd), Bunting textually demonstrates in The Lambkins (and for both my inner teenager and equally so so for adult me) weirdly creepily as well as pretty joylessly and tediously how the main villain, how the main antagonist is now using her deceased husband's invention to provide herself with a "family" of kidnapped miniaturised children (whom Mrs. Shepherd calls the Lambkins of the book title and whom she also claims to be rescuing and making them supposedly reach their true potentials). And while Eve Bunting also seems to claim in The Lambkins that Mrs. Shepherd's shenanigans (including kidnapping children and having even killed one of them after he repeatedly tried to escape from the dollhouse) are somehow due to her being lonely and mentally unstable after her husband's death, yes, the details of the Lambkins' pasts and the dreariness of their life in the dollhouse do indeed and clearly point out and show that in The Lambkins, Mrs. Shepherd is not a victim but an absolute and sneakily villainous monstrosity, that she is nasty, strong, narcissistically insane (and that Kyle, Mac, Tanya and Lulu need to work together to defeat her and to escape from that creepy and freaky dollhouse).

But while like with many adventure novels, The Lambkins has just sufficient characterisation to make Kyle, Tanya, Mace and Lulu's plight feel realistic enough (albeit fantastical) and that their cooperative escape plans seem reasonable, sorry, but I really have not at all enjoyed Bunting's penmanship here, with much of The Lambkins reading tediously but with the intimidatingly large and chillingly insane Mrs. Shepherd and the entire premise of The Lambkins also being much too creepy, too chilling and not at all a reading pleasure. And indeed, while I am of course glad that at the end of The Lambkins baseball prodigy Mac is able to hit and to prostrate Mrs. Shepherd with a ninety-mile-an-hour hardball, it certainly would make especially teenaged me feel a bit better if Mrs. Shepherd had either been killed or been carted off to jail or a harshly disciplinarian psychiatric institution, that for me, Eve Bunting's ending for The Lambkins should really be much much harsher for Mrs. Shepherd (and that Kyle's innocent trust that the police will take care of everything equally makes me squirm more than a bit uncomfortably). Not at all either entertaining or in any way a reading joy, I am indeed seriously unhappy with what Bunting is textually providing with and in The Lambkins (and that while rating The Lambkins with only one star might feel a bit harsh, I really have totally not at all enjoyed The Lambkins and find this story both too creepy for me and also really frustratingly tedious, totally bah humbug).

[Jenben8426 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, this book was pretty weird. I'm guessing that it is supposed to be a "tween" horror story. It wasn't awful but it wasn't that great either. Kyle Wilson is a pretty typical 9th grade kid. That is, until he is kidnapped, and shrunk to the size of a doll, the 4th in Mrs. Shepherd's collection of "Lambkins." They must figure out how to escape before it is too late.

Really this lady was pyscho and the reader never fully understands why. The resolution of the book is not satisfying at all. I would say boys agest 10-13 would like it although some girls might as well too. It was just a little too weird for my taste. I wonder if there is a sequel and that is why there were so many unanswered questions...

[HaYlEy OdOm · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Lambkins was an ok book. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they were going on a plane ride or a long vacation and needed something to pass the time. This book is about a 9th grade boy, Kyle who is kidnapped and shrunken to the size of a polly pocket by a women who Kyle calls the sheperd. She puts him in her doll house and he meats 3 other kids, Tanya, Mac, and LuLu, and a dog, Pippy. They plot to escape the doll house and finally get home, but the main question is, will they ever finally get home?

[Allison L · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good book for people who like mystery. It was about a family that was in a doll house. Although this book was hard for me to understand,the book had to do with teamwork. That is what I gathered that was the theme.The Characters, and there were four, are Kyle Wilson, Mom, Dad and his sister. There are no doors no windows and no way out. I would recommend this to anyone who likes mystery and adrenalin. Overall this was a good book.

[Madison Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a funny book about a lady who poisons this kid and it shrinks him down to doll size she feeds them as her company and calls them her lambkins read to find out more......

[Kirsten Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was definitely not what I expected from Eve Bunting!

Definitely a creepy premise for readers who enjoy the unbelievable!

[Kali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I'm a huge sucker for dollhouse stories - dolls living in dollhouses, mice living in dollhouses, people shrunken down and living in dollhouses... I just have a liking for dollhouse books.

I thought this one would bring something new to the genre by essentially being a horror book - and it did do that, yes, but at the expense of some of the best aspects of dollhouse stories. One of which is the fact that dollhouses are only built to sustain the illusion of life, not life itself. Books generally don't have text inside of them. Lamps and lights don't work (or are a major fire hazard if they do), appliances do nothing, toilets don't flush, blankets are molded onto beds, etc, etc... It's those little things that make the genre entertaining. However, this book got rid of ALL of that by simply saying Mrs. Shepherd's deceased husband was a complete mastermind and happened to build her a fully functional miniature house before he died. For no apparent reason, I guess. Okay.

Oh, but there's no windows. He made everything fully functional, even the toilets, but he didn't bother to put windows in it. Now, I know this makes the house more claustrophobic and prison-like for the kids in the story, but it doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't Magnus put windows in the house?? Ridiculous.

But the most troubling part of the story was the inconsistency in the size of the shrunken kids. Throughout the story, their sizes seem to just... change to be whatever they needed to be to make the scene work. It took me out of the story countless times when they were suddenly bigger/smaller than I'd been thinking they were. It made it impossible to really "see" anything that was going on in my mind's eye as a result.

That said, I did enjoy the characters. I liked Tanya's determination and strength. I liked Mac's counter to that, with his escapism and enjoyment of his writing. I liked Lulu's sweet nature, and the dog was cute. The antagonist was definitely off her rocker in a way you rarely see in kids' books. Usually they're dumbed down or made understandable to bring home a moral, but there's none of this here. She's just bonkers and evil, which makes for a fun story.

However... The ending is what ended up killing the book for me. It's not that it's a bad ending... it just isn't much of one. The story feels like there's a good chapter or two missing off the end of it. I'd like to have a LOT more of my questions answered - and get some true closure to the kids' tale. There needed to be another chapter of the activities immediately following the ending... and then an epilogue taking place in the future. Especially since there's an entire scene where the kids discuss their hopes for the future - and then we don't get to see how it plays out?? Shame on the writer AND the editor for signing off on this without a kite scene. Seriously. Writing 101 here. Don't put the foreshadowing in without the payoff.

[ପฅ(๑• ﻌ •๑)ฅଓ ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this back when I was a kid and keep rereading it throughout the years. Honestly a great read and I feel it still holds up today as an unsettling book. It's short and the plot develops fast, but the premise of these children being dehumanized, shrunk down, and forced to live in a dollhouse as toys for this woman's whims is unsettling. This is still my favorite book all these years later, I would recommend this to anyone!

[Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a good childhood classic!

[Jaida · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so good it is a horror novel but I didn't find it very scary

[Nif_T_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

childhood classic that I finally know the ending to

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this book 4 stars, but my 9-year-old son read it and didn't like it until the end, so I decided to take his view into account as well and compromise on 3 stars. I think that the book had a bit too much dialog and build-up for my son's taste. He likes quick action and adventure. For me the book seemed to set the stage and build up the action quite well. I felt like the beginning of the book started with a lot of questions, just like Kyle would have had a ton of questions when he was captured. By the end most of the questions were answered, but I was left with a few. Did Mrs. Shepherd collect other children before this group? Was Mrs. Shepherd ever captured? Did the children return to normal size? What would I have tried in order to escape? This seems like a great book to use for a discussion with a classroom because while there is an end, there are a lot of things that could still be speculated upon by the reader.

A couple things I didn't like about this book were the cover art and the size description of the children. The children were described as diverse with each having a different ethnicity, however the cover of this book shows four caucasian-looking children. I could maybe accept Kyle - caucasian, McNamara - asian, and Lupe - hispanic, but Tanya is supposed to be black and there is clearly no black girl on the cover art. My other issue with the cover is that children are all hiding from Mrs. Shepherd and this never happened in the book. I feel like the cover was drawn without the illustrator reading the book at all. My other issue is with the size description of the children. I pictured them as doll-house size and most of the descriptions comparing them to other objects in the house collaborated with my image but there were some times when I questioned it. However, when Kyle was trying to hide in the overgrown weeds, Mrs. Shepherd seemed to find him really quickly by just cutting some grass with some pruning shears. If he was as small as I imagine, I feel like he could have hidden longer from her in some overgrown weeds. I can understand the writer wanting to wrap up Kyle's capture and move the story along though.

Overall, it was a fun and unique story that I think most young readers would enjoy.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lambkins is a wonderful book. It is full of mystery and I loved it! When Mrs. Shepard captures Kyle, he is very confused. Mrs. Shepard says she loves the Lambkins and does much for them, but she never lets them off leashes or leave. However, over time Kyle gets used to the swing of things and creates many things to escape this prison. He makes many plans and fails. However, finally, he and the gang (Tanya, Mac, and Lulu) create the perfect plan. After many ups and downs over the course of the book, the 4 come up with the perfect plan. When Mrs. Shepard has a leaky pipe and has to call a plumber, the Lambkins get put in a box. They are kept here while the plumber is doing pipe work near their house in the basement. The house is an oversized doll house. The Lambkins do all they can to get the plumber to hear them, but nothing works. When the plumber leaves, Mrs. Shepard scolds them and leaves to get them food. While she is gone the Lambkins create a plan. Mac who before getting kidnapped was a professional baseball player, will through the stone that Kyle had in his pocket. The stone was found by Kyle in his room soon after he got to Mrs. Shepard's house. The stone used to be the boy who Mrs. Shepard had before Kyle. The boy's name was John. Kyle felt that the stone was his good luck charm. So, Mac through the stone right between Mrs. Shepard's eyes when she came back to give them their food. Then, the Lambkins made an escape for it and went to the neighbor's house. The Lambkins were found by the little girl that lived near Mrs. Shepard, and they knew that they were finally going home.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, last year we read this. It was really good and odd. It's interesting how I imagined everything. In the end, it is a suttle ending. It doesn't really give away anything. It's really cute, though. Now, here's a Tiffany Production-like thing.....


The Epilouge By: Tiffany and Jennifer: After Mrs. Shepherd gets arrested, she gets turned into a German Shepherd! The German Shepherd(Mrs. Shepherd) wanders around and transforms into a bystander named Evan. Evan's friend, Billy goes over for a playdate and notices something suspicious. He takes the German Shepherd(now Evan) and somehow transforms into it. Evan becomes Billy, but the transformation was half wrong so Evan is now a half Transformer in Billy's body! OK, so the facts are:
- Mrs. Shepherd's soul is in Evan's body
- Billy's soul is in the German Shepherd's body
- Evan's soul is in Billy's body, but is also half Transformer
Get it??????

Bibliography: Both my eyes and mind and Jennifer's eyes and mind saw and came to a conclusion! Now, this is what happened after the end of this book! YAY!

Now there will be a *SPOILER ALERT!*

PS. Kyle went back to his regular life, Mac became a professional author, Tanya now lives with Lulu and her family, who is now going to a kindergarten! Isn't that cute???

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Crap, this was an AMAZING book! I read this to my older daugther (13), but my younger daughter (9) was listening as well. A budding young artist on his way home on his bike stops to help a stranded lady and the next thing he knows, he was shrunk, placed into a doll house, and has three other companions. This book is intense and maybe a little scary, but all three of us couldn't wait to read more. Many nights the girls begged me to read "just another chapter", and when we finished reading for the night, all three of us engaged in a discussion on how we thought they'd escape.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly good book that I checked out to read to the kids. It was so good, that one night, about half way through I just sat and finished it after the kids dozed off.

It surprised me in that it was rather scary compared to the books I read as a kid. It has the plot device of kids on their own, with no parents around, and in a dangerous situation. Quite a nice read for grade school kids (I would reserve it for 3rd grade and up) in that it is very easy to get lost in the story.

[Virginia Brace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kyle's been kidnapped and taken to the house of Mrs. Shepherd who lovingly keeps her Lambkins locked up in a house with no windows and no doors. John who was here before Kyle made her angry, and he is no longer here! They are all so tiny and powerless! How will they ever escape? Pretty good suspense and characterization.

[Hallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book Lambkins starts out as 9th grader Kyle is riding home on his bike from art class. He was so excited, someone had just bought his painting for 100 dollars! Then he saw a woman by the road. She said she had a flat tire and that she couldn't reach a spare in her trunk. Trying to help, he leaned into her trunk. Leaning in farther, he felt a sharp pain in his rear.

[Manuela]

Young Kyle has been kidnaped and turned in a doll size by Ms Shepard and they are their lambkins he live in a doll house with three other kids and a dog they have already tried to escape with an other lambking but something bad happened to him and now Kyle is his replace meant and he is planning to escape too.

[C&C Library · Rating 2 out of 5]

IF YOU LIKED THIS TRY...



Deceptive—seems for younger kids but really for IXs, Xs,… kidnapping, told from older kids POV.

[Giggles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for a fluffy read. For anything else, not that great. it's about kids who turn as small as a doll. Ya I know very creepy! But still, aright book. I personally would not recommend it.

[Jen Bojkov · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strangely interesting story. I read it based on the recommendation of one of our students at the HS I work at and I liked it. It was quick and easy to read. Kind of a Gulliver's Island story. Definitely more for the MS crowd.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woohoo! A horror story for tweens and anyone uncomfortable with old ladies who cherish dollhouses.

[Rachel]

It was a great book till the end the ending was terrible

[Shane]

The book was very good.

[Claudia Choi · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when your shrunken, and forced to live in a doll house that has no windows and doors? This horrible event happens to 5 children and a dog. What will you do?

[Maximillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book

[Kristen Mohr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was legit scary. Excellent.

[Ainy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Memories!
Quite the adventurous read I had!!