The Children of Green Knowe

This wonderful book escaped my notice as a child, and now I know why--the local library doesn't have a copy of this, or any of the other titles in the series! How awful!I first found Green Knowe through a listing in the "Best Books for Children" guide. It's now my absolute favorite! I won't attempt a synopsis here--you can read the other reviews for that. But I did want to say it's absolutely MAGICAL! The story is a bit spooky, definitely old-fashioned, mysterious, and sweet, all at the same time! I have to say, as someone who reads a lot of "kiddy lit," I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in this book. In a lesser novel, the sweet old grandmother character would've turned out to be secretly evil, or a witch, or some such nonsense. Happily, she's a magical sweet old lady, and the relationship between this ancient one and her little (great) grandson is really charming.As a matter of fact, the real conflict only comes in just at the end (with a scary scene I won't spoil), so parents who are overly-concerned that their child not read *anything* containing conflict, "bad guys," or evil, be forwarned--all is not goodness and light here. Personally, I find a story about the struggle between good and evil (in the same category as C.S. Lewis' Narnia books) uplifting. The magical "ghost" aspect of it is also treated in a way that promotes good feeling, in my opinion (I know some parents do not appreciate *any* references to the paranormal, either--so I wanted to mention it).But for the rest of us--what a FIND the Green Knowe books are! I've bought a copy for all my neices and nephews. They're off reading Harry Potter and the like. I've read HP, by the way, just to be able to make educated remarks about it. It certainly wasn't the worst book I ever read, but I sure hope you parents are also giving your kids copies of: The Hobbit, and the rest of Tolkein, the Narnia books (Did you know C.S. Lewis and Tolkein were good friends?), the Edward Eager books (start with Half-Magic), the E. Nesbit books (talk about classics in Brit. Kid Lit!! C.S. Lewis cited Nesbit as a big influence!), and Lucy Boston's beautiful series!! Why not throw in Richard Peck's series? Wow--I've got a lot of books here--time to make a list! Happy Reading!

I'd never heard of the Green Knowe books until I recently picked this one up. Too bad, this is a story I would have loved to have someone read to me when I was a kid and which I look forward to reading to my own kids. It is the magical, mysterious tale of young Master Toseland, who goes to spend the Christmas holiday with his great-grandmother Mrs. Oldknow at the family estate of Green Noah. Arriving by train, he finds the grounds flooded and the groundskeeper, Mr. Boggis, must pick him up in a rowboat to carry him to the house. It gradually becomes apparent that the house is temporally as well as physically isolated. First through overheard giggles and then by shadowy glimpses, it is revealed to Tolly (as Mrs. Oldknow calls him) that the house is inhabited by the spirits of children from generations long passed. In particular, Toby, Linnet and Alexander, three siblings felled by the plague hundreds of years earlier, romp about the building and grounds. Mrs Oldknow, who is well aware of the phenomena, tells Tolly stories about the children and the history of the manor, including a gypsy curse that was placed on a creepy topiary of Noah, which is how the place (originally Green Knowe) got its name.Lucy Boston was inspired to write these books--this is the first in a series of eight--after restoring the Manor House at Hemingford Grey, which dates to the year 1130. The restoration process discovered all kinds of hidden fireplaces and windows and other reminders of the house's ancient past. This apparently awakened in her a sense of history on a human scale and reminded her of how easily we ignore such things. She set out to help others recall this sense of wonder: I would like to remind adults of joy, now obsolete, and I would like to encourage children to use and trust their senses for themselves at first hand--their ears, eyes and noses, their fingers and soles of their feet, their skins and their breathing, their muscular joy and rhythms and heartbeats, their instinctive loves and pity and awe of the unknown.She succeeded brilliantly. This enchanting book is suffused with an aura magic and a real spirit of joy.GRADE: A

I first knew Green Knowe as a child, having discovered the series at my local bookmobile one summer in the middle sixties. Later I visited Lucy Boston and came to know the real Green Knowe and its charmed mistress. The odd truth is that while Green Knowe is referred to as a fantasty it's very much real: a haunted, enchanted, moated anachronism in the midst of the so-called "real" world. I give this series to any child that seems to have a glimmer of imagination. It should be reissued immediately: Lucy Boston can write circles around anyone scribbling for children today.

A lifelong reader, having children who loved to be read to allowed me to revisit books that I had loved as a child. Some had sentimental value; very few retained their magical hold on me as an adult. The Children of Green Knowe has the shimmering quality that forces one to regard the ordinary with a new hyper-awareness. Boston's beautiful prose situates one within the stone halls of her mysterious house, where wooden mice squeak, and rocking horses move without apparent animation. She gives the diurnal an extraordinary gloss: after reading her books, nothing else seems quite the same. A dream of a book. (The rest of the series is good, too. Someone should reissue these as a boxed set.)