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Title: The Children of Green Knowe by L. M. Boston, Peter Boston, Brett Helquist ISBN: 0-15-202468-9 Publisher: Odyssey Classics Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.94 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The very best children's magic
Comment: I've been spending some time revisiting my youth via children's books, and in trying to piece together titles from fragments of often misremembered storylines, I came upon this book, which I never read as a child but which piqued my interest enough to check it out as an adult. And now how I wish I had visited the magical world of Green Knowe when I was younger! With ghosts and friendly animals, an intact castle home, mysterious statuary, verdant grounds, and even a curse, this story holds so much of what an imaginative young mind grasps for. It is lovely and humane and, what struck me most of all, having so recently read so many other works of juvenile fiction in which the language is merely a vehicle, extremely lyrically written. The language is the real wonder of the book--accessible to young people but so lovely and evocative, and the fact that the language holds its own against a storyline and a created world that is itself so poetic is true testament to the book's magic. Read it as children, read it as adults--just read it!
Rating: 5
Summary: For Anyone Who Wants to Explore An Old English House
Comment: Reading this book was a strange experience for me, as even though I had never read it before in my life, it evoked a strange sense of familiarity that only the very best books, movies and music are able to achieve. Usually these are reserved for the ones that are experienced in childhood and carried through into adulthood, but every now and then one arrives that touch one on so deep a level that one feels they've always known them. "The Children of Green Knowe" is one such book.
This is the perfect book for anyone that has a love of old homes, and especially for those who have very little chances of exploring them, much less living in them. Since Lucy Boston wrote the Green Knowe series based on her own house and garden that was built nearly nine hundred years ago, the descriptions of the house and grounds are painstakingly created and thus utterly realistic. As her young protagonist explores them, so too does the reader, and her poetic imagery concerning all the marvels that he finds are vivid, mysterious and beautiful all at once.
The story itself is slow and dreamlike; it can hardly be called a story, rather it is better described as the record of a young boy and his semi-magical experiences throughout his winter at Green Knowe. Seven year old Toseland is sent to live with his great-grandmother during the school break whilst his parents are in Burma, and despite some initial fears concerning Mrs Oldknow and her strange existence in the flooded waters of the property, Toseland (or "Tolly" as she calls him) soon finds himself quite at home among the welcoming atmosphere of the house, the variety of friendly animals, and the myraid of interesting relics to be found. Outside, the wintery landscape goes through many changes, from a flooded lake to snow-covered hillocks, all watched over by the statue of St Christopher against the wall.
But there are other components at work that Mrs Oldknow and her manservant Boggis seem reluctant to talk about - the spirits of children that lived in the house over three hundred years ago still seem to be dwelling within the house: Alexander, Toby and Linnet. Tolly is eagar to get to know them, especially if it means seeing Toby's old horse Feste, and through several designs of his own, Tolly just might get his wish. The visitations with the "ghosts" come across as perfectly natural and not at all sinister, through there is just the right amount of mystery about them that keeps the normality of the house just forever verging on the magical.
In fact, for me personally, there was a little bit of a shock in store. The reason I liked this book so much was because it reminded me of my own little hobby (that I'm sure others share) of creating dream-homes to live in, complete with their own names. The name given to my own imaginary house is Joyous Gard (after Lancelot's castle), and I almost got goosebumps when Mrs Oldknow recounts the story of Alexander exploring the old church and deciding to call it Joyous Gard! How spooky is that?
Throughout the book, Lucy Boston's Catholicism is made clear, through her use of St Christopher and the descriptions of finely decorated cathedrals as opposed to the less-elabourate Protestant churches, and so with Catholic favour comes the barest touch of Paganism that (probably unintentionally) lies behind the animal hedge-sculptures that seem to come to life, the ghostly occurances and the personification of inanimate objects. There is even a touch of the sinister in Green Noah, the evil humped tree that lies as a curse upon the family...
For anyone who likes dreamy, meandering stories but have no idea where to find them, look no further than "The Children of Green Knowe". There's enough charm and mystery for any child or adult who long for such a place to live in, and Mrs Oldknow's stories-within-the-story, Tolly's wonderment at his home, and the many strange events that happen make this a hidden gem in children's literature.
Rating: 5
Summary: Friendly ghosts and a lurking curse
Comment: For mature and thoughtful children--and for adults, like all the best kids' lit--this British book, the first in a series, is a true gem. Eight-year-old Toseland Oldknow (cruelly called "Towser" or "Toto" by his schoolmates and new stepmother) is sent to the old manor house of Green Noah (the discrepancy in names is explained partway through) to stay with his great-grandmother, Linnet Oldknow (who apparently married her cousin, in case readers wonder), during the Christmas holidays. The first thing he learns is that he bears an ancient family name, which his Granny shortens to Tolly, by which we will know him henceforward. It soon becomes apparent to him that the ancient stone pile is full of secrets: he hears movement and childish laughter, sees things out of the corner of his eye, and finds a wooden Japanese mouse that's inclined to move and squeak under his pillow. Everything traces back to a 17th-century portrait of three Oldknow children--Toby (another Toseland), 14; Alexander, about 11; and Linnet, 6--with their mother and grandmother, of whom the latter is a dead ringer for his Granny. As Mrs. Oldknow tells stories of this trio, their pets, their adventures, and their seagoing father and older brother, they seem to come more and more to life, until Tolly actually finds himself encountering them--or rather their ghosts, since they died in the Great Plague. He also finds out that Mrs. Oldknow played with them too when she was his age. Then he accidentally learns of a curse placed on the Oldknows by a vengeful gypsy in the 19th century--and very nearly falls victim to it himself, only to be saved by his ghostly friends.
Boston's evocation of the house, the countryside, the misty borderline between two realities, and the final horrific manifestation of the curse (if your kids were frightened by Aslan's fate in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," you'll need to exercise caution with regard to this particular sequence), are masterful, and her gradual revelation of the many mysteries of the manor and the family are splendidly paced. The three 17th-century children are as alive as 1950's Tolly, not only to Tolly but to the reader. I reread this series out of the library several times and finally bought them when I was in my 20's, and I still go back to reread them almost 30 years later. No one should fail to experience them.
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Title: Treasure of Green Knowe by L. M. Boston, Brett Helquist, Peter Boston ISBN: 0152026010 Publisher: Odyssey Classics Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.00 |
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Title: The River at Green Knowe by L. M. Boston, Peter Boston, Brett Helquist ISBN: 015202607X Publisher: Odyssey Classics Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.00 |
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Title: A Stranger at Green Knowe by L. M. Boston, Peter Boston, Brett Helquist ISBN: 0152025898 Publisher: Odyssey Classics Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.00 |
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Title: An Enemy at Green Knowe by L. M. Boston, Peter Boston, Brett Helquist ISBN: 0152024816 Publisher: Odyssey Classics Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.00 |
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Title: The Diamond in the Window (The Hall Family Chronicles) by Jane Langton ISBN: 0064400425 Publisher: HarperTrophy Pub. Date: 18 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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