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A review by ljrinaldi
The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman
5.0
You know those books that change you. The books that you read and reread over and over again, because they speak to you? What if that book disappeared, forever, and never was?
That is the premise of this book, The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor. What if a book has changed you, gave you thoughts you had never had before, influenced you to be who you are, what if they were not only taken away, but vanished from exisitance. What if the one book that made you change, or grow, or think, vanished from the planet, and no one remembered them, or how it changed you.
Poppy’s family has come to the Lark-Hayes Manor to restore it to its former glory. It has fallen into disrepair. And though Poppy is not supposed to explore the building, she does, and saves a water nymph, who grants her one wish. Her wish is to have a magical, flying lion. And the price? Only a book, or so Poppy thinks. One book. But no, it is all books. All her favorite books. All her family’s favorite books. Gone from her family, and gone from the world.
And all she has to do to get them back, is give back the flying lion.
And thus the quandary.
The voices of this book are so real. The parents not perfect. The bullies just as bad as bullies are. The story surprises me at each turn. I could nto guess where it was going, or what would happen, or what books would be taken away, and what each one meant to the person that made them special. The journal that Poppy’s mother had from her mother, who dies when she was young, taught her all the old family recipes. When that is swallowed up, the food that made anywhere they went home, was gone, along with her mother’s imagination.
This is a ten star book. All the feelings, all the angst. All the love. I can’t recommend this any more highly than to say you need this book. If you love magical middle-grade stories, if you love flawed, as we all are, heroines. If you love books, you will love this book.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
That is the premise of this book, The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor. What if a book has changed you, gave you thoughts you had never had before, influenced you to be who you are, what if they were not only taken away, but vanished from exisitance. What if the one book that made you change, or grow, or think, vanished from the planet, and no one remembered them, or how it changed you.
Poppy’s family has come to the Lark-Hayes Manor to restore it to its former glory. It has fallen into disrepair. And though Poppy is not supposed to explore the building, she does, and saves a water nymph, who grants her one wish. Her wish is to have a magical, flying lion. And the price? Only a book, or so Poppy thinks. One book. But no, it is all books. All her favorite books. All her family’s favorite books. Gone from her family, and gone from the world.
And all she has to do to get them back, is give back the flying lion.
And thus the quandary.
The voices of this book are so real. The parents not perfect. The bullies just as bad as bullies are. The story surprises me at each turn. I could nto guess where it was going, or what would happen, or what books would be taken away, and what each one meant to the person that made them special. The journal that Poppy’s mother had from her mother, who dies when she was young, taught her all the old family recipes. When that is swallowed up, the food that made anywhere they went home, was gone, along with her mother’s imagination.
This is a ten star book. All the feelings, all the angst. All the love. I can’t recommend this any more highly than to say you need this book. If you love magical middle-grade stories, if you love flawed, as we all are, heroines. If you love books, you will love this book.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.