Customer Reviews

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When you're a parent or a librarian or a teacher or a bookseller who reads a lot of children's books, you sometimes wish for fun. Children's books are often by their very nature "fun". But there's fun that's strained and trying to appeal to everyone and then there's fun that appears to be effortless. You read a book, are transported elsewhere, lose track of time, and never want the story to end. It's the kind of fun a person encounters in a book like Book One of "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place". In "The Mysterious Howling" you meet a book that's a little like "Jane Eyre", a little like Jane Yolen's "Children of the Wolf", and a little like nothing at all. Pure pleasure for kids, for adults, for everyone. Treat yourself.

If you were to hire a governess from the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, you would find yourself with a young lady of exceptionable talents, knowledge, and intellect. Such is the case when Lord Frederick and Lady Constance hire fifteen-year-old Penelope Lumley to be governess of three children. The catch? Well, they're not your average nippers, these three. Found on the sprawling acreage of Lord Frederick's estate, the children appear to have been raised entirely by wolves. Literally. Their new guardians have dubbed them "The Incorrigibles" and are expecting miracles. Now it is up to Miss Lumley to get them civilized and educated or it's to the orphanage with them and unemployment for her. And there are certainly strange goings on at Ashton Place, that's for certain. Does someone have it in for the children? Where does Lord Frederick constantly disappear to? Is there something nasty lurking in the attic? Fortunately for everyone Miss Lumley is made of sturdy stuff, and it will take more than a mystery or two to keep her from fulfilling her duties to the fullest.

Since the story takes place in the year when "Moby Dick" first came out, we can place the period of this piece somewhere around the early to mid-1850s. However, this does nothing to prevent author Maryrose Wood from leaping forward and backwards in time in terms of the narration. It is not uncommon for the story to say something along the lines of "nowadays it would make a fine documentary for broadcast on a nature channel on cable television" and then go right back into the past again. The effect is mildly jarring the first time it happens, but as it goes on the reader gets a feel for Wood's style. Books of this nature (which is to say, gothic books for kids) these days have a tendency to be compared to the works of Lemony Snicket. I would argue that there is very little in this book that is similar to Mr. Snicket's works, except perhaps the delightful vocabulary (though Snicket never seriously attempted Latin the way this book does) and the narrator's tendency to become a confidant of the reader.

What is most remarkable is how well constructed the entire endeavor is. Ms. Wood manages to make the whole story fit together like a little puzzle. A Christmas party must occur on the night of the full moon since that is when guests will best be able to see their way. At the same time, perhaps there are other connections to full moons that we should remember. You never really see where the plot is going until it gets there, so predictable this book is not. Best of all are all the characters. Each one is unique, distinct, and memorable. Even the villains, such as they are, are sympathetic in their headstrong ways. And our heroine, Miss Lumley, is the kind of companion you'd readily follow through book after book. Just as the children come to trust her, so do you, the reader.

I suppose one might question whether or not this is the kind of book that actual honest-to-goodness kids will enjoy, as opposed to gothicly inclined adults. After all, the heroine is fifteen and the story is about her occupation. That said, the real stars of the show are The Incorrigibles themselves. You cannot help but fall instantly in love with them the moment you meet them, and I can see many a kid identifying with them. And while the heroine of this story is a woman, I dare say that there will be boys out there who latch on to the whole "raised by wolves" aspect of the story and find it right up their alley as well. Sell this book to kids correctly and you'll find them (forgive me, but I managed to keep from saying it for this long) howling for more.

Illustrator Jon Klassen is to be credited for providing the loveliest little illustrations to the story. Where some illustrators might have provided images that would make the book appear older, or more teen, Klassen's pictures actually give the story a younger feel. There is much that is adorable about this tale, and I think the artist captures that perfectly. While a reader is being charmed by the fact that the kids call Miss Lumley "Lumawoo", Klassen draws the children as bright, pert, and friendly. They often complement or clarify the action better than the book would alone. Even the author herself once said that the image of the children reenacting Longfellow's "The Wreck of the Hesperus" (note that Cassiopeia has lashed herself to a potted fern) might be her own personal favorite image in the book.

Well, there's nothing for it but to love it, really. If I do have a beef with it, it may have something to do with the fact that you never really learn the answer to any of the mysteries that come up by the end of this story. Readers will be panting to know more (no pun intended) and then find that they have to wait to read the next book in the series before anything is resolved. Fortunately, they'll scramble to read that next book with very little prodding. For some kids, this will act as a follow-up to Lemony Snicket. For others, an intro to Jane Eyre. And for most, this will be the kind of story you read over and over again, just to taste the language and meet the characters again. Just the loveliest little book. One hopes we'll be seeing many more of its kind very soon indeed.

For ages 9-12.

I was thoroughly excited to read this book, just based off of the name and the cover, and although, I would generally not recommend judging a book by its cover, this book proved to be wonderful. The premise is already charming, that there would be need for a governess to oversee children who happen to be raised by wolves. Beyond that, it's every bit fun that you would expect.

The children adapt and learn quickly, but Wood makes them consistent to their wolfly roots, throwing in squirrel chases and conversations with housedogs. They seem like believable characters, as believable as children raised by wolves can be, I suppose, and all of the other main characters in the story are just as ridiculous but lovable, as any good historical satire of Victorian society would be.

Wood's writing style reminds me of the dry wit of Roald Dahl, and it's about time that we had books in that style again. I can't wait to read the rest of the series as it comes out, and I recommend this to readers 9+, focusing more on 9-12.

-Lindsey Miller, [...]

When Miss Penelope Lumley, a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, goes to Ashton Place to be interviewed for the position of governess to three young children, she's certain that she's found the ideal job. A knowledgeable governess who loves animals is being sought after, and Penelope is perfect for the task. But what she doesn't expect are the children's animal-like tendencies, a direct result of being raised by wolves. Rather than flee Ashton Place, Penelope is determined to stay on and teach the children all she can. But it is rather difficult to do so when she must first teach them proper hygiene and etiquette in preparation for the holiday ball to please their benefactors, all the while wondering where on earth the children came from and why certain people are perhaps too interested in them.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place is a charming and unconventional tale. It's told in an authentic and highly entertaining voice that lends itself to the setting of the novel, sophisticated and proper, yet very entertaining and accessible to younger readers (for example, when discussing a tableaux vivant, the narrator says, "No doubt this will sound dull to the modern viewer whose tastes have been shaped by more advanced forms of entertainment featuring zombies and so forth..."). These little references to more modern items are a bit surpsing at first, but they are few and far between. The characters are of course eccentric, from the three Incorrigibles Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia and their quirky, canine, and squirrel-chasing tendencies, all the way to the lord and lady of Ashton Place. In the middle of it all, Penelope is a clever and resourceful heroine with gumption and smarts who isn't easily cowed.

The mysteries interwoven in the novel are also quite fascinating, for they concern not just Ashton Place and the Incorrigibles, but their plucky governess and her past as well. Though not many answers are revealed, the book is never predictable nor boring, and by the time you are through, you will be in love with the Incorrigibles and Penelope. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place is a genuinely fun and engaging Gothic book that may be tilted at kids, but anyone will enjoy it.

... but ending, after all, in a cheap trick. Really? "To be continued...."? REALLY?

I sighed through the parenthetical cutesy comments to the reader; I groaned over the mysterious acknowledgments at the end--but really, Dear Author, discussing things which only your inner circle has knowledge of, in your Acknowledgments, is at best affected, and at worst, just plain rude--but to allow a child to read that entire book, to get to "To be continued..."?

Sad. I gave three stars, because if we could lose the affected coyness, there is great promise for the future; the writing was good. But the end? Again, a cheap trick. It felt as if the author did not know what else to do.

In her first novel for middle-grade readers, author Maryrose Wood seems to channel both Lemony Snicket and Jane Eyre in this wickedly amusing tale of a naive 15-year old governess whose first job entails educating three children who have literally been raised by wolves. OK, it's not exactly historical fiction, but it does take place some time in the second half of the 19th century!

Our indomitable governess, educated at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is undaunted by the challenges of raising children more used to communicating through barks, whines, and nips than the proper King's English. Indeed, she immediately begins teaching them poetry, as well as training them not to drool and how to properly put on pants and dresses. The first in a series, the novel offers plenty of humor but also a slew of mysteries....our governess heroine, Penelope Lumley, for one. Her own beginnings are murky enough, since she is sure she has parents somewhere, but "she simply did not know who they were or when she could expect some sign of their return." And when the mistress of the house throws an elaborate Christmas party, who is the villain who has tried to sabotage her success by releasing a squirrel into the house (as you might expect, the squirrel unleashes our feral children's inner canine instincts, resulting in wide-spread mayhem)? AND who exactly is hiding behind the wall in the attic of the house? Perhaps we'll find out some of the answers to these important questions in the next volume of this series.

The only negative I found in the book--and I don't think it would be a negative for the author's young readers--was Wood's almost uncanny mimicry of Lemony Snicket's style (it made me think about that contest where people submit bad Hemingway!) Like Snicket, she communicates directly with her readers, and has adapted his style of explaining words or concepts with a wry wit that may go over the head of some of the children in her audience. For example, consider the beginning of The Eleventh Chapter:

"As you may have already had cause to discover, a statement can be both completely true and completely misleading at the same time. This is called 'selective truth telling,' and it is frequently used in political campaigns, toy advertisements, and other forms of propaganda (p. 166)."

Nonetheless, I highly recommend this novel for ages 8-12; it would make a fun read-aloud for parents or teachers as well.

Penelope Lumley acquires a job at Ashton Place. The accommodations and pay are quite good, but they seem nervous to introduce her to the children. When she hears the sounds of dogs in the barn she goes to investigate and finds the children. The children act like animals they don't know how to speak or put on clothing. Penelope sees this as a great challenge and is excited to take it on. However, with a Christmas party approaching she doesn't know if the children will be ready in time. With some odd things happening and someone in the house trying to thwart Penelope's efforts to civilize the children, Penelope's is in for a bigger challenge than she originally thought.

This was an amusing book with and interesting concept. Children raised by wolves is an outrageous idea. Though I feel as though these children were very quick to warm up to humans. I was surprise that Penelope seemed to take everything in stride and it didn't seem too strange for her to meet the children. This was an enjoyable book and fans of The Willoughbys will enjoy this. The illustrations by Jon Klassen are thoroughly excellent too. One thing that did bug me were all the sentences that were along the lines of "how you say nowadays" and would then relate something that was happening to something more modern. It happened entirely too much. Especially in chapter 11. All in all this was a great read and I look forward to the next installments of the Incorrigibles.

First Line:
"It was not Miss Penelope Lumley's first journey on a train, but it was the first one she had taken alone."

Favorite Line:
"Next time you see me, I will have wasted away to skin and bones---oh, look who is lurking here among the foliage."

A Mysterious Howling, the first in a planned series by Maryrose Wood, is written for middle-grade readers. Fifteen-year-old nanny Penelope Limley has recently graduated from the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. On her own for the first time in her life, Penelope arrives at the mysterious Ashton Place with her meager belongings and the memorized "pithy kernels of knowledge" from the school's headmistress and her mentor, Agatha Swanburne.

Although Penelope appears calm on the outside, her mind is always in full drama mode. Wood does a great job of treating the reader to Penelope's amusing inner thoughts as she takes on the care of three children who are wild as the woods.

Underneath Penelope's quiet veneer is a young girl who steps up to and embraces the challenge of these three unusual and unfortunate orphaned children, with remarkable results. Their pasts are a mystery. The kids howl, bark, chase squirrels, and develop their own language within the English Penelope teaches them. Lord Ashton and his flighty new wife, Lady Constance, have little use for the children. The fact that they call the children "The Incorrigibles" and use it as their last name demonstrates how they feel about them.

Penelope develops a wonderful relationship with Casseopia, Beowolf, and Alexander. The dialogue, pacing and descriptions are wonderful. What goes on is fun and exciting and the climax of the book had me laughing out loud. I'm looking forward to the next installment so that the unanswered mysteries might be solved. My ten-year-old daughter thought the book was "fun" and wanted to read the next in the series right away.

by Judy Miller
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

The writing is superb for yound adult fiction. Don't get me wrong, it's not Hawthorne or Longfellow but the fact that it isn't probably affords the younger readers an occasional breath of relief. I checked it out from the library hoping to read it to my 4 year olds, but not even my wife could follow it (English is her 5th language) so I had to read it to myself. It should be good for a 9-12 year old reader who is about as precocious as Miss Lumley herself. The fiction has some anachronistic problems and silly interjections by the narrator that are perfectly forgiveable if you don't take it too seriously.

The character development of everyone but the children is outstanding while neither depending too heavily on stock characters or dwelling boringly on minutia. The children themselves are a sort of ridiculous construct of the plot that is a bit too far fetched to fully explicate but it doesn't really matter.

Despite being a wonderful introduction to the characters, full of vivid imagry and amusing scenes, the plot unfolds only to the point where the reader can surmise from, "the body was never found" and Miss Lumely's true hair color, what will be revealed in future books, but Wood's lesser devices remain mostly unrevealed trivialities.

I suppose it will be a ironic treatise on class if it turns out that Fredrick is the son of a coachman and the four Incorrigibles are the legal heirs to Ashton Place. Regardless, it's a keen commentary on the idle rich and bookish academia. Too bad it can't end by Penelope reading, "The Call of the Wild," what?

A fabulously fun middle-grade series. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling is the enchanting first book in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series. This book is a delightful middle-grade read. Miss Penelope Lumley, fifteen year old graduate of Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is thrust into her first position as governess at the manor house of the wealthy Ashton family. The children who are put in young Penelope's care, however are not the progeny of Lord and Lady Ashton, but orphans that have been recently forced, at gunpoint, to leave their home in the woods on the Ashton estate grounds. Fortunately for the children, Penelope has a large heart and an even larger desire to take her role as governess quite seriously. Armed only with her wits and the anecdotes of her former school mistress Agatha Swanburne, Penelope faces the challenges and mysteries of the incorrigible children. Maryrose Wood weaves a lighthearted tale that will appeal to young readers and readers who remain young at heart.

I highly recommend The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling to readers of Victorian mysteries and middle-grade fiction. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling may appeal to fans of The Agency series by Y.S. Lee.

Note: I read much of this book out loud to my corgi and she *loved* it! Wood's lyrical prose and the howling dialogue of the incorrigible children make this a fun book to read to others.

I cracked this book open while I was waiting for my bus at 10am and read it every spare minute I got until I finished it around 6pm the same day. Not because of suspense -- the plot is gentle rather than taut -- but because it was just that much fun. It was like eating perfectly munchable cookies with a favorite friend, the conversation effortless, the sun just warm enough, the lemonade exactly the right balance of tart and sweet.

Wood's style is chatty and chummy in an utterly gracious and genteel way (think some of Miss Manners' best writing) and the story tends to the light and frothy rather than the emotionally draining. The humor is gentle with plenty of knowing winks and tongue firmly in cheek, and seamlessly brackets the literary references. The pace is perfect for a refreshing, entertaining read that doesn't strain anything.

I can't wait to read this out loud to my kids.