A review by foggy_rosamund
The River at Green Knowe by L.M. Boston

3.0

Two middle-aged women are renting Green Knowe, and they invite Ida, a great-niece, and two children, Oskar and Hsu, from The Society for Promotion of Summer Holidays for Displaced Children. Oskar, Ida, and Hsu (called Ping), find a canoe, and begin a holiday of exploring the river outside Green Knowe. Written in the 1950s, this is a strange follow-on from the previous Green Knowe stories, as the disappearance of Tolly and Mrs Oldknow is not explained, and the sense of Green Knowe as a place is completely different. The previous descriptions of Green Knowe captured a strange and historic house, full of ghosts and beauty, whereas the Green Knowe here is a simply a place the children eat their meals before they begin their adventures along the river. The river is a very magical place, where children can change size, giants dwell, and horses grow wings. Boston's descriptions of the magical within the real, and of the beauty of the summer river, hold this book together, and create something very readable, strange and entertaining. However, part of what made the previous books work for me was the strong sense of Tolly's character, and the rootedness of place, both of which are lost here. I never really got a sense of Ida, Ping or Oskar, and that was a large part of why this book felt rather flat to me.