The Children of Greene Knowe

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Summary: enchantment, anyone?
Review: A lifelong reader, having children who loved to be read to allowed me to revisit books that I had loved as a child. Some had sentimental value; very few retained their magical hold on me as an adult. The Children of Green Knowe has the shimmering quality that forces one to regard the ordinary with a new hyper-awareness. Boston's beautiful prose situates one within the stone halls of her mysterious house, where wooden mice squeak, and rocking horses move without apparent animation. She gives the diurnal an extraordinary gloss: after reading her books, nothing else seems quite the same. A dream of a book. (The rest of the series is good, too. Someone should reissue these as a boxed set.)

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Summary: Green grow the rushes oh
Review: I wasn't entirely certain what to expect when I picked up the much beloved but rarely discussed, "The Children of Greene Knowe". What I found was a book that was a little like "The Secret Garden" and a little like the beginning of "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase". It is, all in all, a very pleasant story about a boy and his ghostly companions. There are brief moments of conflict, but on the whole only good things happen to the protagonist. For children, this is an excellent introduction into the world of mysterious goings on.

Toseland (or Tolly for short) has just been sent by his father in Burma to live with his great-grandmother in jolly old England. Tolly is a little nervous, not knowing quite what to expect. What he finds is a magical castle called Green Noah, presided over by a loving kindly grandmother. But strange dealings occur in the house when Tolly arrives. A snatch of laughter here, reflected children's faces there, and inanimate objects that have the tendency of coming to life. To Tolly's delight there are three children in the castle, cheery ghosts of siblings that lost their lives in the Great Plague. Don't expect any meanderings on the meaning of life after death, or any explanations for that matter. The children are perfectly happy flitting about from inside to outside, and in time they and Tolly become good friends. It is only the malevolent presence of the nasty gypsy-cursed tree Green Noah that keeps Tolly from perfect happiness.

When you pick up a book in which a veritable orphan is being sent to live with previously unknown relatives, you usually do not find an idyllic situation. Anne of "Anne of Green Gables" had her problems. So did the Baudelaire orphans of "A Series of Unfortunate Events". Which makes Tolly's story all the more interesting. For quite a while I was convinced that there would be no real conflict at any point. Tolly's days are fun, improving when he comes to know the children better. Reading this book, I was reminded of my own childhood days and the millions of ways kids can find to have fun on their own. When Green Noah makes his appearance in the tale he is a truly odd spectacle. I was delighted to find, however, that when the tree decides to blindly come after Tolly it is a moment of real heart-stopping terror.

The writing in this book may strike some as a little pendantic. So I cannot say whole-heartedly that every child will like it. But some will love it, I can tell. L.M. Boston is the kind of author who can write deeply evocative sentences in a children's book and never appear ridiculous for it. I was particularly taken with a passage that read, "In front of him the world was an unbroken dazzling cloud of crystal stars, except for the moat, which looked like a strip of night that had somehow sinned and had no stars in it". The book is full of beautiful lines like this one, yet it retains the interest of the child reader.

Kids who like fantasy but find some books a little too scary or nerve wracking might take to "The Children of Greene Knowe" very readily. Any kid who has loved Frances Burnett, Edward Eagar, or E. Nesbit will adore this story. Get 'em while they're young and they may even wish to read this book's multiple sequels. It is a charming series.

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Summary: Best-Kept Secret in Children's Literature?
Review: This wonderful book escaped my notice as a child, and now I know why--the local library doesn't have a copy of this, or any of the other titles in the series! How awful!

I first found Green Knowe through a listing in the "Best Books for Children" guide. It's now my absolute favorite! I won't attempt a synopsis here--you can read the other reviews for that. But I did want to say it's absolutely MAGICAL! The story is a bit spooky, definitely old-fashioned, mysterious, and sweet, all at the same time! I have to say, as someone who reads a lot of "kiddy lit," I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in this book. In a lesser novel, the sweet old grandmother character would've turned out to be secretly evil, or a witch, or some such nonsense. Happily, she's a magical sweet old lady, and the relationship between this ancient one and her little (great) grandson is really charming.

As a matter of fact, the real conflict only comes in just at the end (with a scary scene I won't spoil), so parents who are overly-concerned that their child not read *anything* containing conflict, "bad guys," or evil, be forwarned--all is not goodness and light here. Personally, I find a story about the struggle between good and evil (in the same category as C.S. Lewis' Narnia books) uplifting. The magical "ghost" aspect of it is also treated in a way that promotes good feeling, in my opinion (I know some parents do not appreciate *any* references to the paranormal, either--so I wanted to mention it).

But for the rest of us--what a FIND the Green Knowe books are! I've bought a copy for all my neices and nephews. They're off reading Harry Potter and the like. I've read HP, by the way, just to be able to make educated remarks about it. It certainly wasn't the worst book I ever read, but I sure hope you parents are also giving your kids copies of: The Hobbit, and the rest of Tolkein, the Narnia books (Did you know C.S. Lewis and Tolkein were good friends?), the Edward Eager books (start with Half-Magic), the E. Nesbit books (talk about classics in Brit. Kid Lit!! C.S. Lewis cited Nesbit as a big influence!), and Lucy Boston's beautiful series!! Why not throw in Richard Peck's series? Wow--I've got a lot of books here--time to make a list! Happy Reading!