Shelly's Book Blog

The Willoughbys, by Lois Lowry and just published this year, is a wonderful parody of many old-time conventions of children's literature, such as the pitiful but industrious orphan, the villainous uncle/aunt/other guardian, and the rich, benevolent benefactor who makes everything come out OK in the end. The Willoughbys are a family of six: Mom, Dad, Tim, twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B (yes, the twins have the same name), and little Jane. The parents take off on an exotic vacation, leaving the children with "the odious nanny," who turns out to be not so odious after all (Mary Poppins of the Julie Andrews variety, rather than Travers' original, not-so-sunny character).

This is a short book (I read it in about 2 hours), but it is full of laughs and would make a great read-aloud.

If you liked Series of Unfortunate Events, you will likely enjoy The Willoughbys as well. Appropriately, Lemony Snicket wrote a review of the book for Publishers Weekly, which is available on
amazon.com.