Friday, November 30, 2007

Treasure of Green Knowe

Treasure of Green Knowe, L. M. Boston.

"The fire was burning cheerfully, but over the beam on the rather smoky wall was a large clean patch where previously the oil painting of hte Oldknow family had hung. The space was partly covered up by a smaller picture that Tolly could not even bother to look at.

'Where have they gone?' he said accusingly to Mrs. Oldknow. 'Toby and Alexander and Linnet--where are they?' " (p. 6)

Tolly eagerly arrives at Green Knowe for the Easter holiday, only to discover the family painting and the children quite gone from the old house. Rather than try to re-create the charm of the tale of Tolly and his friends from long ago, Boston creates a whole new adventure for Tolly and the old house, a lovely story just as fresh and charming as The Children of Green Knowe. Granny Oldknow is considering selling the painting of Toby, Alexander and Linnet in order to pay for repairs to Green Knowe, unless Tolly can discover the mystery of missing jewels from long ago. Through Granny's stories and his own explorations, Tolly discovers two more delightful friends from the past and has a marvelous adventure. Boston is a master at spinning delightful tales without tipping into sentimentality, heavy-handedness or predictability.

More Poohsticks posts about Green Knowe, here.

1 comment:

DebD said...

This sounds really good and I've put the first book on hold at my library. Thanks for reviewing.

p.s. my family loves playing Pooh Sticks too... love the photo in the header.