Those Old Fashioned Stories

The Willoughbys, by Lois Lowry
The Willoughbys are a perfectly old fashioned family. They live in a tall skinny old fashioned house. The father goes to work at a bank each day, leaving with a briefcase and furled umbrella. The mother cooks meals and knits. There are four children who do the things children in old fashioned books do--go to school and the park and occasionally the zoo or circus.

That is, they are a perfectly old fashioned family if your idea of a perfectly old fashioned family has been influenced by Lemony Snicket. The oldest boy bosses his siblings around, telling his youngest sister that she can't do anything because she's just a girl. Jane, the youngest sister, spends considerable time trying to become more self-assured. The middle boys are twins with the same name, so everyone calls them simply "A" and "B". The parents don't actually like their children and the children wish that they were orphans (a perfectly respectable thing to be in an old fashioned kind of story). Down the street, there is a wealthy and eccentric man who has the potential to become a benefactor if one should be needed. When a nanny is hired, the children decide that she is odious.

With tongue firmly in cheek, Lowry is clearly having the time of her life poking fun of the conventions of an old fashioned family story. There is a glossary full of laugh out loud definitions and an annotated bibliography of real old fashioned family stories (like Anne of Green Gables and A Christmas Carol) with spot on descriptions at the back. Not to be missed.

Available in April.