This was a nice lazy summer read. I blew through it in a couple of days. It's about five English children whose parents are unavailable. Father is in Tibet collecting plants and Mother is in hospital. The children spend the summer at a little country hotel in France and get a worldly education they weren't expecting. They discover just how dastardly grown-ups can be. The funniest character is Willmouse, the only boy in the family, who is more like a girl than any of his four sisters. Willmouse is quite a dandy in the making. He spends the days with his dolls in his atelier under the cherry tree. He loves Vogue magazine and seems destined for a career as a fashion designer. The one irritating thing about this book is that there are places with French dialogue and no translation. Crazy French people hurling insults at each other is no fun when you have no idea what they're saying. Today's vocabulary lesson:A greengage is a plum, named for its green-gold color and for Sir Gage, who first brought the fruit from France to England. [3.5 stars]
The Drift Of Things
To yield with a grace to reason
This was a nice lazy summer read. I blew through it in a couple of days. It's about five English children whose parents are unavailable. Father is in Tibet collecting plants and Mother is in hospital. The children spend the summer at a little country hotel in France and get a worldly education they weren't expecting. They discover just how dastardly grown-ups can be. The funniest character is Willmouse, the only boy in the family, who is more like a girl than any of his four sisters. Willmouse is quite a dandy in the making. He spends the days with his dolls in his atelier under the cherry tree. He loves Vogue magazine and seems destined for a career as a fashion designer. The one irritating thing about this book is that there are places with French dialogue and no translation. Crazy French people hurling insults at each other is no fun when you have no idea what they're saying. Today's vocabulary lesson:A greengage is a plum, named for its green-gold color and for Sir Gage, who first brought the fruit from France to England. [3.5 stars]
