Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A Parody of Family Harmony


Lowry, Lois. (2008) The Willoughbys. Houghton Mifflin Company.


With modern children pining to live the lives of 19th century story orphans, and uncaring parents planning to abandon the children The Willoughbys is a children’s novel turned on its head. It takes a few chapters and development of some likeability in the scheming siblings for the humor to gel. From there it’s a wild ride alluding to every children’s, rags-to-riches story between Oliver Twist and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Even when the children’s plans go awry, their solutions can only cause the reader to giggle. The Willoughbys is a sophisticated, laugh out loud, language-rich voyage through the tribulations of four resourceful child protagonists that will entertain children of any age. Quirky ending included.

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