Customer Reviews

The Mennyms

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the most imaginative books I've ever read and also one of the most psychologically astute. On the surface it appears to be a highly original and well-planned fantasy--live dolls coping in a flesh and blood world--but the reader soon finds herself propelled beyond the fantasy into the day to day living of a complex and engaging family. All of the Mennyms, no matter how faintly drawn, have individual and sympathetic characters. Within the context of fantasy, the family deals with age old issues: autonomy versus connection, real versus pretend, mothers and daughters, self-protection versus risk and the need for, as well as the fear of, change. Sylvia Waugh illustrates the provocative theory that fantasy is often the true purveyor of difficult truths and hard realities.

Recommendation: Buy it.

I am a fourth grader and The Mennyms was suggested to me by my librarian. I read it and thought it was marvelous! I reccomend it to anyone who is interested in this series of books about a family of life-sized rag dolls. The charecters are Sir Magnus and Tulip, who are the grandparents, Vinetta and Joshua, who are the parents, Soobie and Pilbeam, who are the older twins, Appleby, who is a teenage girl, Poopie and Wimpey, who are the younger twins, Googles the baby, and her nanny Miss Quigley, who is the only non-member of the Mennym family but also a rag doll. I found the plot interesting and the charecters well discribed. I hope you read this book because it is fantastic!

This is a book review by the Magnolia Bookworms a book club of 5 girls ages 9-10. Chelsea: I liked this book because it had a great story. It also went into other adventures instead of just one. Alberta: I liked the book because it was well written and suspenceful. My favorite character was Soobie because he read so much and he didn't pretend. Alice: I did'nt like the book because it was very depressing and sad and it should have started out more exciting so more people would want to keep reading. Hannah: I did'nt like this book because rag dolls trying to be human was weird. Cati: I did like the book because it was very intresting with the rag dolls acting like real humans.My favorite charcter is Vinetta because she was very helpful making the rest of Pilbeam.

*The Mennyms* is a great book. And I highly recommend it. It's unlike any other book I have ever read; if you read one you must read the rest. It's a very unusual and original book, with wonderful characters you will fall in love with. The Mennyms is a family that live in an old house that they rent. But they are not an ordinary family, they are lifesize living dolls. One of the things this book is about is how they deal with being dolls. One of my faverate characters is Appleby, a sassy teenager who does not like being a doll. The book is all about them hiding from the outside and trying to keep their secret safe from their new landlord. If you like fantasy, (like *The Borrowers*) you will love *The Mennyms*. If I say anymore I may spoil it, so you must read it yourself.

The problem with this book is that it's hard to convince other readers that it's the real deal. The premise sounds like that of a fairly generic kid's book: the story of a family of live (human-size) rag dolls. But that's like saying that _The Metamorphosis_ is about a man who turns into a beetle. It's actually a shrewd & often disquieting study of the tensions & loves that bind together a family; it also offers an exceedingly ambivalent portrait of fantasy--the pathos of the dolls who engage in "pretends" (whether harmless--Joshua's comforting pretense that he's drinking from an empty mug of coffee--or much more harmful, such as the monstrous prank played by Appleby in this novel). & it has a curiously delicate approach to religious themes: on the one hand, each book in the series has a moment that quietly implies an act of divine benevolence--& yet Soobie (the most philosophical of the dolls) is an agnostic who in any case doubts that God, if he exists, cares about dolls like he does abotu humans. So Soobie's an unbeliever quietly asking God to help him in his unbelief (& yet his prayers _are_ answered). The book gives me a stsrong sense of how family life (however loving) can become a terrible burden in the absence of outside relationships (to friends, boyfriends, neighbours, &c). This is the dolls' real problem: that they are stuck with their own company, that their world is circumscribed by their own family.

This is all to make the book sound terribly heavy--which it isn't, though if you're expecting whimsy & colourful fantasy this certainly isn't the book for you. It's great storytelling, though with more of an emphasis on the strangeness of daily routine (& the little lies & deceptions that go into it--encapsulated in the habitual, thoughtlessly inconsiderate treatment of Miss Quigley, forced to wait in a closet for ages until it's time to "pretend" that she's visiting from a house on Trethewick St.) than on elaborate plot. This may be a "grown-up" book, but many young readers are very grown-up, of course.

One final note: I was surprised to see that the mysterious doll in the attic is named "Nuova Pilbeam". She's the only doll with a first name, & there's a reason for this: it's an allusion to the teenage British actress Nova Pilbeam, who was the kidnapped daughter in Hitchcock's _The Man Who Knew Too Much_ (the 1934 version).

The Mennyms By Sylvia Waugh

The genre of this book is fiction. The setting of this book is in England at a Victorian house number five Brocklehurst to be exact. The problem in this story is that the Mennym's can't let humans see them because they are rag dolls, So when Albert Pond sends a letter that says he wants to come visit them they are extremely frightened. The solution to their problem is Albert Pond gets married and doesn't come to The Mennym's house. My favorite scenes are when Appleby is reunited with Pilbeam after many years of memories she was born knowing. My favorite characters are Pilbeam and Appleby because they are so complicated and they act just like regular teenagers would. I would recommend this book if you enjoyed the book The Borrowers you will enjoy this book. The Main Characters are:

Vinneta Mennym the Mother of the family is allmost always worried about something, kind, encouraging, and understanding.

Joshua Mennym the father who speaks only a few words at a time.

Sir. Magnus Mennym this grandfather is a wise one and has been that way for over forty years (when Aunt Kate made him and his family.)

Tulip Mennym the grandmother who takes charge by supporting her family, just like all the other adults, and paying the bills.

Hortensia Quigley the quiet neighbor who is almost part of the family. She is said to live on Trevethick Street but she really lives in the Mennyms cupboard.

Nuava Pilbeam the long lost twin of Soobie. She is sixteen years old and quiet cheeky but apologizes for it.

Appleby Mennym also very cheeky and rude, but unlike Pilbeam because she doesn't apologize for it. Most of the time takes matters in to her own hands.

Soobie Mennym The one responsible for Pilbeam being noticed. He is also very kind.

Albert Pond The owner of the Mennym's house. (They rent it from him)

One trait all of the characters share is they are all so mysterious. After reading this book I give it a 10+.

You know, when I read Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel, "Coraline", I was under the distinct impression that the idea of people walking around with buttons for eyes was a new thought on his part. Then I picked up "The Mennyms" by Sylvia Waugh and found that I had, yet again, rushed to a wrong conclusion. Written originally in Britain in 1993, the book has been compared to "The Borrowers" in terms of its storyline and characters. But where "The Borrowers" was a tale of tiny people who just wanted to be left alone, the Mennyms are a family of living breathing rag dolls. I should add, life sized rag dolls. But lest you start thinking that this is some namby-pamby book in which a bunch of magical dolls have wonderful adventures, allow me to put your mind at ease (or not, depending on what kind of person you are). This book has more spunk and sizzle than a can of Jolt Cola and reading this book will do anything but bore you.

It begins, as so many good novels do, with a letter. The Mennyms, created by an elderly lady years ago, have been living quite peacefully in their house on Brocklehurst Grove. Their house has been leased to them from the distant Chesney Loftus and they have quite successfully hidden themselves away from the outside world for roughly 40 years. Then a letter arrives. Chesney, it seems, has died. The house and all its worldly possessions has fallen into the hands of his nephew, a Mr. Albert Pond. And unlike his uncle, Mr. Pond is very anxious to meet his distant tenants. Faced with the possibility that they will all soon be discovered, Pond's letter sets off a chain of events. In time, the Mennyms may have to change some of the solid routines they've been going through for 40 odd years. Drastically.

In spite of being life sized dolls, the Mennym family isn't cutesy in the least. These dolls bicker, fight, throw tantrums, and occasionally storm out of room in a huff. They're also loving and tender when it suits them, but don't expect them to be saints. Trapped in bodies that will never age or die, they have established their family roles brilliantly. The teens are alternately stubborn or moody as best suits their personalities. The parents wise or willfully ignorant as suits theirs. Yet by the end of the book they've not only overcome their own personal prejudices (even ragdolls have a kind of class system in place) but also some long standing grudges. Good children's books feature characters that grow and change through the course of the action. "The Mennyms" isn't afraid of doing that one bit. More's the better.

Not to give anything away, but the surprise twist that pops up in roughly the middle of the book is a doozy. One I definitely didn't see coming. I love any kid's book that can throw its adult readers for a loop. This one succeeds brilliantly. Though I figured that teenaged Appleby was up to something, it never occurred to me what exactly that "something" might be. Keep your eyes peeled when you read this one. The clues are all presented there for you. If you prefer just a good story over a mystery, however, "The Mennyms" still delivers. A fun concept and enjoyable book. I doubt any kid reading it wouldn't want to meet a Mennym of their very own. An outstanding selection.

The five books in "The Mennyms" series are almost as monumental as "The Borrowers" series. The concept is similar in that you have a family of "people" who are out-of-the-ordinary enough that they need to keep themselves hidden from the greater human population or risk being exibited as freaks, or worse yet, examined in a labratory. It almost doesn't matter how the "people" are "different", what matters is what the author does with the situation, how believably they can weave together a previously unknown point of view, like that of teeny tiny people living behind the baseboards, or life-sized rag dolls who come to life. The writers who can pull this off smoothly, without showing us too much of the puppeteer who is pulling the strings are few and far between. Sylvia Waugh does a near-masterful job.

I know there are plenty of adults out there who relish a really well-done kid's-book series. Something that tickles your fancy and finds you appreciating the creative author's adult mind-at-play. The Mennyms let's you know right off the bat that you are THERE, relishing away!! These books can be read aloud to kids and enjoyed simultaneously and equally (if not more so) by the adult reader.

I learned about these books while reading "Ascending Peculiarity", a book of interviews done by various people with writer and artist Edward Gorey throughout his life. In one interview, the interviewer asked Mr. Gorey, who was a wildly and widely well-read person, what his top recommendations were for reading. He gave a very short list, and "The Mennyms" series was on it. So that got me going. I checked the books out at my library and I had my fun relishing, and recommend the same to one and all, of all ages.

From the outside, you'd think 5 Brocklehurst Grove is perfectly normal and that that the family that live there are perfectly normal to.......think again, The Mennyms, Tulip, Sir Magnus, Vinetta, Joshua, Soorbie, Appleby, the twins Wimpey and Poopie and the elusive Mrs Quigley are from ordinary. The whole family shares forty year old secret, a secret to which nobody has even come close.....until perhaps now, when one Albert Pond decides to visit them from Australia, plunging the whole family into fear....................

This book is a masterpiece. When I first heard about it from a friend, I decided to read it, and I am really glad I did! I read all the books in the Mennyms series at least twice, and did book reports on two of them. A couple years ago, when I heard that a new addition to the series was coming out, I was thrilled. I waited and waited for that book, and when it finally came, I wasn't let down. That book was as great as all the other books! You should definately read the first Mennyms book, if not all of them! When I saw the Mennyms on my school's summer reading list, I was so happy that all the students at my school were going to get to be so lucky and discover the Mennyms. THE MENNYMS IS A GREAT BOOK! READ IT!!!!!!!