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kailey_luminouslibro's review
3.0
You really have to read this one together with "house of Arden" in order to understand it. Not the greatest of Nesbit's books, but a grand tale with plenty of magic and noble deeds.
jlmb's review against another edition
4.0
Arrrgggg, I did not realize this was a sequel to another book of hers until I was halfway done. So maddening. To be honest, I didn't really need to read the first one to understand this one but still....I like things in order.
Just like all her other kids books I've read, this one was great. I love her style, her writer's voice, really everything she does. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because I didn't love it quite as much as some of her other books. Dickie can be a bit too goody goody, like a Dickens character. I prefer the more naughty children in her books, like Oswald Bastable.
Now I've got to go hunt down the first book in this series. But first, a few bits I enjoyed reading:
Mr Beale was confused by the two desires which make it difficult to confess anything truthfully - the desire to tell the worst of oneself and the desire to do full justice to oneself at the same time. It is so very hard not to blacken the blackness, or whiten the whiteness, when one comes to trying to tell the truth about oneself.
Let him feel a little bit of a hero, since that was what indeed he was, even though, of course, all right-minded children are modest and humble, and fully sensible of their own intense unimportance, no matter how heroically they may happen to be behaving.
The difference between being rich and poor is as great as the difference between being warm and cold.
"We call him Rosinante because he is so fat" and he laughed, but Dickie did not understand the joke. He had not read Don Quixote as you, no doubt, have.
If you think there are not so many shades of white, try to paper a room with white paper and get it from five different shops.
I am told the correct plural is chrysalides, but life would be dull indeed if one always used the correct plural.
Just like all her other kids books I've read, this one was great. I love her style, her writer's voice, really everything she does. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because I didn't love it quite as much as some of her other books. Dickie can be a bit too goody goody, like a Dickens character. I prefer the more naughty children in her books, like Oswald Bastable.
Now I've got to go hunt down the first book in this series. But first, a few bits I enjoyed reading:
Mr Beale was confused by the two desires which make it difficult to confess anything truthfully - the desire to tell the worst of oneself and the desire to do full justice to oneself at the same time. It is so very hard not to blacken the blackness, or whiten the whiteness, when one comes to trying to tell the truth about oneself.
Let him feel a little bit of a hero, since that was what indeed he was, even though, of course, all right-minded children are modest and humble, and fully sensible of their own intense unimportance, no matter how heroically they may happen to be behaving.
The difference between being rich and poor is as great as the difference between being warm and cold.
"We call him Rosinante because he is so fat" and he laughed, but Dickie did not understand the joke. He had not read Don Quixote as you, no doubt, have.
If you think there are not so many shades of white, try to paper a room with white paper and get it from five different shops.
I am told the correct plural is chrysalides, but life would be dull indeed if one always used the correct plural.
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