From the Bookshelf of Retro Reads…

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (The Wolves Chronicles, #1)

Joan Aiken,

Pat Marriott (Illustrator)

Start date: March 24, 2019

Finish date: April 23, 2019

Discussion: Retro Children & YA Books

Discussion leader: Hana

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Retro Children & YA Books

* Retro Children's Books
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A possible children's book read?
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What Members Thought

Mar 14, 2019 Susan in NC rated it really liked it

What a grand adventure! I never read this as a kid, but it sounded fun, so I jumped at the chance to read it (and listen to the audiobook, beautifully narrated by the author’s daughter, Lizza Aiken) with the Retro Reads group.

A lovely, grand, old-fashioned adventure with brave and resilient orphans, evil governesses, a big country house with secret passages, wolves hunting through the snowy night - what fun! My son just graduated from college, but when he was young he read several Lemony Snicket ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Mar 27, 2019 Barb in Maryland rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kids-books

Rollicking tale of two plucky girls who definitely have adventures in an alternate version of Victorian England.
Clever touches abound--aided quite well by the ample illustrations.
Too bad the book wasn't around when I was 8, I probably would have loved it. I can easily see why it became a favorite book for so many children

Adult Barb got a good giggle out of the very Dickensian names: Miss Slighcarp (the villain), Mr Gripe the lawyer, Cardigan the Bow Street Runner and many more. Adult Barb also w ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 05, 2007 Alexandra rated it it was amazing

Shelves: made-into-movies, to-re-read-audible, isa-blake-ideas, read-more-than-once, middle-grade, childhood-favorites, own-on-kindle, favorites, preteens, recommend-to-kayla

1st in the series.

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Jun 09, 2010 Linda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: series, mid-reader, re-read

I love this book. The start of a great series.

So I've picked this for my staff pick on heroes and I want to say that as far as heroes go "It takes a Village" because our two girls--Bonnie & Sylvia--get help in getting away from the baddies in the story (and there are lots of baddies) from all sides.

Starting back at Willoughby Chase with the servants who either hide (Pattern) from the evil guardian Miss Slighcarp when she fires all the staff or pretend to be evil (James) to be kept on.

Then we m ...more

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Jan 01, 2018 Felicia J. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"Dream," murmured Bonnie sleepily, "we can't help dreaming, Pattern. We've so much to dream about - the wolves, and Miss Slighcarp, and walking to London, and helping poor Aunt Jane, and Mamma and Papa adrift in a boat full of oranges and grapes ..." Her voice trailed away into sleep.

Somehow I missed this little gem as a child. But it enraptured me as a grownup. The only reason I didn't finish it in one sitting was because I had to get up early for work. It made my heart thump in my chest with i ...more

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Aug 12, 2007 CLM rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: orphans, childrensbooks, series, 19th-century, historicalfiction, uk

I thought that The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was a very good book. It had adventure in it and I had no idea how it would end. I thought that Bonnie and Sylvia were perfect for the main characters and Miss Slighcarp had a perfect personality for a villain.

Victoria

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Jan 15, 2019 Shan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kids, audio-books, library-book

My friend Lynn Gordon recommended this to me in 5th or 6th grade, when it was brand new. I borrowed it and read it and loved it, and I think I read it a couple more times but always from the library, so the plot didn't manage to take root in my brain. Rereading it just now was like reading it for the first time.

It's a Victorian style children's novel, although it came out in 1962. For comparison, that's a year after The Phantom Tollbooth. The plot and characters are Dickensian, which was intenti My friend Lynn Gordon recommended this to me in 5th or 6th grade, when it was brand new. I borrowed it and read it and loved it, and I think I read it a couple more times but always from the library, so the plot didn't manage to take root in my brain. Rereading it just now was like reading it for the first time.

It's a Victorian style children's novel, although it came out in 1962. For comparison, that's a year after The Phantom Tollbooth. The plot and characters are Dickensian, which was intentional on the author's part according to the introduction by her daughter, who narrates the audiobook. Wealthy Bonnie Green is orphaned and immediately robbed by a scheming distant relative, and she and her poor already-orphaned cousin Sylvia are sent to a horrible workhouse "school" where they are starved, locked in coal cellars, and worked to the bone. Bonnie is plucky and hot-tempered; Sylvia is genteel and obedient, having been raised by her elderly Aunt Jane who lives in a one-room attic apartment on Park Lane - the only address she's willing to have, although she can't afford anything better there - and teaches her needlework and rules, such as "a lady never rides in an omnibus" and "a lady never asks her fabulously wealthy brother for help."

It's a lot of fun. Bonnie and her friend Simon are resourceful and energetic, the good adults (Bonnie's parents, a blacksmith, a painter/doctor, and others they meet along the way) are entertaining, and the villains are bad through and through. There's a flock of nice geese that serve as warm comforters and burglar alarms, several assorted other orphans, blue skim milk and a basket of cheese.

About the wolves. I do remember on first reading this in 1962 or so wishing there were more wolves taking an active role throughout the story - they're major characters early on, when Sylvia is taking the train to Willoughby Chase, and the train is held up because, as usual, there are wolves on the track, and there are some harrowing wolf-related scenes, but then they fade away. They're mentioned later but never really come back as important parts of the story. I imagine the title is a metaphor for the horrid Miss Slighcup and her partners in crime. Still. I would have liked more real wolves. ...more

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Jan 07, 2014 Laura Anne rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-or-childrens, gothic, british-isles, historical-fiction

I wish I'd read this at 10 years old; with its fantastical, Dickensian, Gothic drama it definitely would have been one of my favorites!

The opening is excellent, the middle satisfyingly melodramatic, but the conclusion was a letdown. Not because it was a poor ending, but because it wrapped up too suddenly and neatly. A mysterious side plot was forgotten and the wolves disappear in the second half. It needed another 50+ pages of twists & turns to reach its full potential. ...more

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