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| Photo credit: T |
By Lois Lowry
Newly published: April 7, 2020 by HMH
Mom's Review
The Willoughbys was originally published in 2008, but is published again this year with a new cover, likely in conjunction with the upcoming publication of the sequel.
The premise is simple and horrible: The children want to do away with their parents while the parents are simultaneously trying to rid themselves of the children. The children get their idea from books like Heidi and Anne of Green Gables. The parents get their idea from "Hansel and Gretel." Hilarious hijinks, literary references, and preposterous behavior abound in this fast-paced, quirky tale; fans of Lowry will not be disappointed. I say this as someone whose all-time favorite book has to be The Giver.
Think about every Dickens villain ever. You've got Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby right there. Now cross David Copperfield with Sara Crewe (A Little Princess), James (of the giant peach), and Charlie Bucket, and you've got the Willoughby children. If we are tempted to compare Nanny to Mary Poppins, she would tell us, "Not one bit like that fly-by-night woman...all those disgusting spoonfuls of sugar!" I love it when books reference other books; it's just so fun and makes me feel like I'm on the inside of an inside joke with the characters. Another plus is that T now wants to read the works referenced; a glossary in the back explains both potentially challenging vocabulary and the novels noted by the children.
The Willoughbys is modern-classics-based humor with language that will put Vocabulary Workshop to shame while bundling the reader along on two rollicking adventures that intertwine at the end. It's crafted with an attention to detail that makes the nigh-absurd characters and situations seem not only plausible, but undeniably inevitable. I recommend it for excitement and laughter!!!
Son's Review
(Age: 5)
We began this one evening, reading only 34 pages. T wanted to finish it the following day. We did. That was 113 pages of Lowry read aloud in one day. It's that good.
At first, I thought that Melanoff and the nanny were the bad guys. But the parents and the guys who are coming to buy the house are the bad guys. It seems like the baby is causing a lot of trouble 'cuz it played with that survival note and bit his [Timothy's] finger.
The nanny and Jane are my favorite characters. I like how she's [the nanny's] getting control of Tim and takes away his points. The nanny's clearly funny.
I thought it was cool how we get to hear a little bit more of the story [in the epilogue], about like when they were grown-ups. That is cool to know.
The nanny wasn't odious at all. She got Tim to be less bossy. Tim got less bossier and at the end he was less bossy at all. The parents were really dumb. They were – what's the word? – dolts! They climbed a mountain with frozen people on it. Jane was my favorite character, then the nanny. They did old fashioned things. It was funny how they [the parents] got frozen and the wrongness of the mountain climbing gear. My favorite part was when the girl used that word that she was not allowed to say.
Can we read the second book?
We watched the Netflix movie after reading the book. It was bad. So, so bad. Here's what T had to say about the movie:
It's not like the book at all. They don't camouflage at all [in the movie]. It's way different from the book. This is not at all like the book! It's not bad as just a movie, but it's bad for being the book.
Note: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
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