By Veronica Cossanteli
Illustrations by Melissa Castrillon
Based on the original by E. A. Wyke-Smith (1927)
4RBooks: 5/6, grades 4-8
Amazon rating: 4.8/5, grade level 3-7
Good Reads: 4.00/5
Common Sense Media: Not yet reviewed
314 pages
Synopsis:
Pip and Flora are the newest children at the Sunny Bay Home for Superfluous and Accidentally Parentless Children. They are both orphans and have not yet fit in with the rest of the children. Pip because he is always in trouble and Flora because she refuses to speak. The home is nice, but there are a lot of rules.
Pip and Flora get in trouble with the not very adept handyman, a Snerg name Gorbo. Snergs are short, round human-like creatures who live in tree houses of the forbidden forest. Their punishment was to miss the school picnic and run an errand to the docks for one of the boats. An accident occurs and the children run off, into the forest.
A number of adventures follow. The reunite with Gorbo who takes them to the land of the Snergs. They are then kidnapped by a witch. After escaping, they find themselves in the kingdom of the Kelps. Flora is again kidnapped by the witch and Pip, Gorbo, the Kelps, the Snergs, and sailors set off to rescue her and put an end to the witch and her evil plans.
Parental Guidance: medium-low
The Parents of Pip and Flora are not good role models.
Pip is at the orphanage because his mother ran away with the sword swallower. His father was distant and cruel before dying in a trapeze accident.
Flora grew up rich, but with a mother who only spent 10 minutes a day with her. One day Flora’s mother became exasperated with Flora’s talking and yelled at her to be quiet. She had never spoken since. Her parents died in the sinking of the Titanic.
The story is very much a fairy tale with ogres, witches, and many dangerous magical beasts.
The children are kidnapped by the witch. They face dangers on a regular basis.
The previous leader of the orphanage had been mean to the children, which is why Malicia had set fire to the place and wanted to destroy it. She didn’t care about the children inside.
Recommendation:
In 1927, author E. A. Wyke-Smith wrote a novel called The Wonderful World of Snergs. It became one of the inspirations for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. While completely different stories, if you have read Tolkien’s novel, you will recognize the common themes and character types.
This is a retelling by a modern author. Having never read the original, I can’t say for sure how close it follows t Mr. Wyke-Smith story. There is a Q and A set of pages in the back where the authors details some of the changes, but also her dedication to being honest to the first novel.
It’s a children’s novel, but adults will enjoy it, too, especially Tolkien fans. There is fairy tale violence, but it is never graphic and similar to Hans Christian Anderson stories. There is a plethora of advanced vocabulary words throughout the story that parents and teachers might need to explain or use as extension activities.
I discovered this book in the bookstore of Oxford Exchange, Tampa, Florida. It was a refurbished old building with a restaurant, coffee bar, tea bar, and candle making shop, along with the bookstore. It was a great place to explore and eat. I would highly recommend checking it out if you are in the Tampa area.
Comentarios