The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

Nefairously Written and Ignominiously Illustrated by the Author.
5 Stars
JF

HILARIOUS! Oh my word. From start to finish-- including the Glossary!

This is a fabulous parody on all the "winsome deserving orphan" stories in literature. (Think Pollyanna, Anne Shirley, etc.) It's a quick read and well worth it! Except that Tim, A, B (twins-- both named Barnaby) and Jane aren't orphans. Yet.

Here are some fabulous quotes for you:

Their father, an impatient and irascible man, went to work at a bank each day, carrying a briefcase and an umbrella even f it was not raining. Their mother, who was indolent and ill-tempered, did not go to work. Wearing a pearl nechlace, she grudgingly prepared the meals. Once she read a book but found it distasteful because it contained adjectives. Occasionally she glanced at a magazine.

The parents decide to go on vacation and leave the children with a nanny.

"Oh lovely!" said Nanny. "You are an old-fashioned family, like us. We are four worthy orphans with a no-nonsense nanny."
"Like Mary Poppins?" suggested the man, with a pleased look of recognition.
"Not one bit like that fly-by-night woman," Nanny said with a sniff. "It almost gives one diabetes just to think of her: all those disgusting spoonfuls of sugar!"

And just in case you're thinking of skipping the Glossary...

CRYPTIC means seeming to have a hidden meaning. If you mother says, "Consider yourself grounded, mister!" it is not at all cryptic. But if she says in a certain voice, "We need to talk," she is being cryptic. And you are about to be grounded.

Absolutely a book I need to own. And a great book for kids-- it will give them some excellent vocabulary words. Just make sure they're old enough to know it's a joke. ;)

I love Lois Lowry.

Messenger by Lois Lowry

5 Stars
YF
Final story in the Giver trilogy

This is a beautiful story. It follows Kira's friend Matt (now Matty) several years after Gathering Blue.

Now he lives in Village and takes messages for Leader. He hopes to receive his "true name" (a title, really) soon.

But things are changing in Village and in Forest. When the people vote to close Village, Matty must journey to get Kira, before it's too late.

Messenger really ties together The Giver and Gathering Blue. Lois Lowry ties the two together beautifully, without it feeling contrived-- which sometimes happens when an author tries to do something like this.

I loved it. I did. There were little inconsistencies in details and voice (between Messenger and Gathering Blue) that annoyed me at first, but the story is so wonderful and touching that it just doesn't matter.

I actually wish it had been a little longer, but there's a certain wisdom in leaving the reader wanting more. :D

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

5 Stars
R-0
YF

This is a companion novel to The Giver-- not a sequel. It does not pick up Jonas' story, he's not in it. Just so we're clear.

Gathering Blue gives us another view of what the (post-apocalyptic) future could be. (Hopefully not though, yikes.) It's a society existing separately from and yet at the same time as Jonas' society. (There's even a blue-eyed boy mentioned at the end. Is it Jonas? Could be.)

Kira's alone in the world. Her father died before she was born, her mother has just lost a battle with illness, and the neighbor women want her land to build (I kid you not) a pen for the "tykes and the fowls" so they won't have to chase them. (Now, I'll be the first to admit that there are perks to something like that. I block Mister into the living room with boxes. But a pen surrounded by thorn bushes? Seriously? So they can play in the ashes and debris that used to be Kira's cott? With the chickens? Yikes.)

Kira herself is saved by a Guardian who defends her and brings her to the Edifice to live and work with the threads, as her talent has out-classed even her mother's.

But things may not be what they seem. And just because the door is not locked does not mean she's free.