Customer Reviews

Clover Twig and the Magical Cottage

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Clover Twig is ten years old and describes herself as, "hardworking, tidy, honest, mostly sensible, and sometimes stubborn." She can read and write, but is most talented at cleaning, which is how she ends up employed as a housekeeper for a witch. Unfortunately, this witch, Demelza, has an evil sister who is up to no good. She has a PLAN, and intends to use an appetizing cake left on the doorstep to foil her sister's defensive spells. "No one leaves a cake out in the rain." purrs the wicked Mesmeranza.

What tale would be complete without a sidekick or two for our heroine? Clover is joined in her adventures by the clumsy neighbor boy, Wilfred, and Demelza's cat, Neville.

This book is fun and considerably lighter in tone than most of the other magic books on the market. Kids who read well at about the 4th grade level should enjoy it, regardless of age. Mesmeranza locks the children in a dungeon and feeds them bread and water, but there's never any hint of truly foul deeds.

To enjoy books like Clover Twig and the Magical Cottage was the reason I learned to read all those years ago. It's the sort of book you happily immerse yourself in until they call you for dinner, and regret that you must leave when it is over. Now, as a children's librarian, I can't wait to hand it over to those bright little five through nine year olds who have read through all the Garden Fairy books and are looking for more magic at another level. Perfect.

Between the whimsical drawings and the whimsical text, this book was sure to delight me, and it did. I started off reading it with my daughter, but I was impatient and read all the way to the end on my own.

Clover is a sensible girl, in a quite extraordinary situation, yet she always manages to keep her composure and her sensible nature to cope with the chaos around her. I enjoyed Clover, but I admit that what won me over were the wonderful scenes with the evil witch Mesmeranza.

Mesmeranza is vain and vengeful, but perhaps not the most effective Evil Witch, as she relies on her mousy secretary Miss Fly and her assorted other servants to carry out the various Plans she thinks up. Here, she dictates to Miss Fly her To Do list for The Plan:

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"Put the shoes first."
"What?"
"The shoes go first. Before anything else, I need the right shoes. These red ones."
Mesmeranza stabbed at a page in the catalog with a crimson talon. The shoes she was pointing at were bright red and strappy, with perilously high heels.
"Haven't you got enough shoes?" ventured Miss Fly, who went for more sensible brown wide-fitting flats.
"No," said Mesmeranza, firmly. "Shoes are vitally important. What have I always said, Fly? Get the shoes right, and everything else follows smoothly. We don't all have to go around with Yeti feet like you. So the list now reads, Shoes, Cake, Disguise, Boy."
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The book is a breezy and funny light read, but the language is beautiful and the vocabulary rich. There's nothing too scary, but it's quite funny, particularly the contrast between the way Mesmeranza perceives her wicked and brilliant schemes and the way everyone else sees them.

Cats play an important role, as do cakes, and an invisible horse. They are all well drawn, with a level of cheerful realism, even the ones that are magical and thus shouldn't necessarily be realistic at all.

On the cats:
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Here we are again, back in Castle Coldiron. The weather has not improved. Storms are blowing in from the north. Miss Fly's cats are restless. They just slump around shedding hair, watching the clouds gather, and demanding more fish heads. Miss Fly is beside herself. Not only is her room full of chunks of fallen ceiling plaster, frankly, it's getting rather stinky.
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The suggested age range of 9+ is about right for most kids in terms of the difficulty, but this is a novel that would be a good choice for a precocious younger reader as well - there's nothing too scary or too grown up here. It is also a perfectly wonderful read for an adult of any age, with or without the excuse of a child to read it to.

I loved this book, and I look forward to seeking out other titles by Ms. Umansky.

I really wanted to like this, as my daughter is nearly the age for it, and as she is a voracious reader I am always looking for a new set of characters for her to love. But overall, I was disappointed in this book.

Let me first say that this is my first read of Kaye Umansky, and I've not read a lot in the magic genre (Harry Potter, etc.). I have read a good bit of 2-5 grade literature with my daughter though, which this book falls right into, being listed for age 9 and up.

I found the characters in this story to be quite unmemorable, and the writing too caught up in their own idiosyncrasies to give them any depth. Clover is fine... she's honorable, at least, which is nice. The bumbling clumsiness of Wilf is more annoying than funny. The vanity and rudeness of the "evil" witch to others is cliche. The "allergy-speak" of the evil witch's secretary Miss Fly is irritating at best and unintelligible at worst (and that's for an adult). The dialogue is pretty trite, even for a children's book -- lots of snitty conversation and insults.

I found the language and content to be not particularly appropriate for this age group either. Maybe kids like potty humor -- sentences ending before the next word would be "poop" are good for a juvenile laugh, but it's not what I look for for my daughter. The dripping nose of Miss Fly (gross), the romantic harassment of Mrs. Fly by Humperdump (odd) and the general sarcasm of the book were off-putting. The town the story takes place in is "Tingly Bottom" - I mean, come on.

One particularly inappropriate language moment was when the good witch says "Flippin' chilly out there." I don't know about you, but "Flippin'" is what I say as a now-I'm-a-parent replacement for something inappropriate I've trained myself out of from my teen years. It's it completely unwelcome in a children's book (just polled a roomful of others of various ages and generations who had stronger reactions on this even than me).

Content-wise, Clover's family, of five children, doesn't have enough food to put on the table, but the father is out of work and always at the pub (even in the morning according to one reference). The spite and one-upmanship between the sister witches in the story is hardly a theme I want my little girls to read. Really I couldn't find much that I loved in this book, and I'm not really clear on what the other reviewers seemed to find that was so delightful.

I just refuse to believe that to appeal to kids that literature needs to be potty themed and sarcastic. If you are looking for magic and fantasy with a more altruistic bent, and educational slant, and with healthier relationships, try the Magic Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne.

Clover Twig goes out to get a job with a messy witch, clean and tidy Clover will be a live in housekeeper. Meanwhile there is a dark plot afoot, a large cat that is vicious, flying horses, a boy who is clutsy, beautiful cakes showing up on the doorstop, weird green smoke and a gate with an attitude.

The book is chockful of fun, loveable and memorable characters. There are some holes or pieces of plot that are lacking, but overall the story and the writing style are clever, fast paced and fun.

I did enjoy the book and feel confident in introducing it to our girlfriends read book club for 9 year old girls and up (and their mothers) for books by women about great female characters. We can certainly discuss Clover's qualities.

In it, we meet Clover Twig, an unusually neat and responsible pre-teen who is applying for a job with the town witch, Mrs. Eckles. It is obvious at once that Mrs. Eckles needs Clover's housekeeping skills and Clover's large family would certainly benefit from the wages. Clover and Mrs. Eckles take a liking to each other, she is hired and the adventure begins.

Mrs. Eckles has an evil sister, who covets Mrs. Eckles' ramshackle old cottage, simply because it is not her own, and has been trying for years to steal it. Clover, the cat Neville, and the extremely clumsy delivery boy Wilf find themselves in a battle to keep the cottage for Mrs. Eckles, while she is away at a Fair.

When spelled out like that, the plot doesn't sound like much, and some of it is fairly standard children's fantasy--as well as bearing a likeness in some parts to at least one of my favorite authors. On the other hand, there are some good laugh-out-loud bits, the children are likable and when Ms. Umanksy writes about cats, well, it is obvious she knows cats! Also, just when I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, I received a plot surprise here and there which rounded out to a pleasant story, with an amusing and gratifying ending.

On the whole, as an adult who sates herself in fantasy as often as possible, this wasn't an exceptional book. However, I would think that a child, still fresh to the genre, would be enchanted and thoroughly amused. I would certainly recommend it to the young pre-teen, especially female, reader.

Saying much about the plot of _Clover Twig and the Magical Cottage_ would spoil the book, which is full of surprises and twists and turns. Perhaps it would be better to tell who some of the characters are.

First, there's Clover Twig, who is practical, tidy, and very adult at only 10 years of age. Clover goes to work for a witch by the name of Demelza Eckles. Mrs. Eckles is a good and kind witch, but messy and desperately in need of a reliable live-in housekeeper like Clover. Sometimes she also has errands done for her by Wilf, an accident-prone but well-meaning boy. He, in addition to Clover, becomes one of the two main characters.

Then there's Demelza Eckles' sister, vain Mesmeranza. Demelza has something Mesmeranza wants desperately and will do anything to get. You see, Mesmeranza is NOT a good witch. She's plotting and planning something sneaky, and aims to trick the children into helping her with her plan.

Author Kaye Umansky seems to have a love of language, giving her characters funny names that fit their personalities. She also employs alliteration and other language gags--such as with Mesmeranza's personal secretary, who can't pronounce more and more letters as she gets sicker and her congestion thicker. Some of the language play is reminiscent of Roald Dahl.

All of the other characters have their flaws and idiosyncrasies (including the cat and the flying horse), all, that is, except for main character Clover. The witches really aren't all that scary, even the bad witch Mesmeranza. After all, it's difficult to be scary if you're a vain witch who insists upon wearing high heels.

What a delightful book! Likeable characters, unpredictable story (thank you Umansky!!), fantastic voice, vivid imagery, and a rolicking sense of fun. Although it could probably be classified as an adventure/witch novel, I found myself laughing every few pages at things like the witch's bizarre initial question to a girl interviewing for a job: "first off, are you stupid?" or smiling at the visuals, such as this description of a cottage: "the whole structure sagged heavily to one side, as though it was too exhausted to stand up straight." I love that the main character is very responsible and yet likeable anyway. I found all the characters believable and engaging, and was genuinely curious to watch some of them interact with each other. I'm in my 30s but actually stayed up late to finish reading this... haven't done that with a children's book for years.

Ten-year-old Clover Twig is a practical girl. She knows how to cook and clean and likes things neat and tidy. When she sees a classified ad for a housekeeper, she knows she is the girl for the job, even if it means moving in with the local witch, Demelza. Of course Clover Twig did not anticipate the many downsides to this job. Like the fact that this witch might be the most disorganized woman on the planet, or that a clumsy delivery boy would make her life difficult, or that a feud with Demelza's evil sister - who has a PLAN - could put her in a lot of danger. This whimsical, exciting story will easily capture readers both young and old with its lighthearted magic and sense of humor. Johannah Wright's wonderful illustrations are the icing on the cake. For sure, Clover Twig is a character you will not forget.

Clover Twig is the kind of character I wish I'd read when I was a girl of 10 or 11. She's clever, grounded, and witty without being jaded. The story is engaging and age appropriate for advanced elementary readers and middle readers. While the tale contains magical creatures and suspense, it never crosses over into the scarier territories of the Harry Potter or Eragon series. I look forward to reading more of her adventures in the future!