You cannot switch between them willy-nilly. Rule #1: Children’s books must mostly be about children. Greenglass House is just the latest example. And in breaking them, she creates stronger books. Rules that have been dutifully followed by children’s authors for years on end.
To my mind, Milford has a talent that few authors can boast She breaks unspoken rules. Someone is sabotaging the Greenglass House but it’s the kids who will unmask the culprit. Yet even as they unravel clues about their strange clientele there are always new ones to take their places. And when thefts start to take place, Milo and his new friend Meddy decide to turn detective. All told more than five guests appear with flimsy excuses for their arrival. Yet in spite of the awful icy weather, a guest appears. Though Milo’s parents run an inn with a clientele that tends to include more than your average number of smugglers, he can always count on winter vacation to be bereft of guests. A raconteur’s delight with a story that’ll keep ‘em guessing, this is one title you won’t want to miss. And when it’s Kate Milford doing the writing, there’s nothing for it but to enjoy the ride. When you find one that’s really extraordinary you want to hold onto it. Though the Edgar Awards for best mystery fiction do dedicate an award for young people’s literature, the number of honestly good mystery novels for the 9-12 set you encounter in a given year is minimal. Kids today have it better, but not by much.
Aside from The Westing Game or supernatural ghostly mysteries sold as Apple paperbacks through the Scholastic Book Fair, my choices were few and far between. I just didn’t have a lot to choose from there. It wasn’t that I was rejecting the mysteries of the children’s book world. This would be around the time when I was ten or eleven. When I was a kid I had a real and abiding love of Agatha Christie.
0 kommentar(er)
