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A review by katykelly
The Painted Garden by Noel Streatfeild
4.0
This is one of those books that you need to read as a child to experience what the author intends.
I am sure I'd have loved it if I'd read it at 10. A family in need of money given the chance to travel to Los Angeles, away from rationing and towards adventures in dancing, radio and Hollywood. It's wish-fulfilment at its peak.
Eldest child Rachel wants to be a dancer, and meets Posy Fossil from previous book Ballet Shoes (to the delight of readers I would guess). Youngest Tim is talented on the piano and finds his own niche in their new home. It is middle child Jane, envious of her siblings' abilities and opportunities who is given the biggest chance of all...
The story goes in the way you'd expect it, with just a few curveballs (the reason for Mr Winter's inability to work seems quite shocking, the relationship between Jane and Maurice not ending as you'd think). It's quite formulaic, plot wise, but enjoyable for a reader, as you yearn for certain things to happen, and lo and behold...
As an adult, The Painted Garden is sweet, cloyingly so at times, the children actually pretty annoying. As a parent I'd be talking to my child if they spoke in the way the girls sometimes do. The entitlement they seem to feel that they deserve certain things really don't sit well with me.
The awful stereotyping of Italian and 'coloured' accents also was though I suppose of its time, something I'd alter if I read it to my child. And I would also have to discuss the probably-inappropriate present of a cigarette case to an eight-year-old too! I know it would have not been unusual then.
Overall, a great children's classic read and a trip down Of-Its-Time Lane for an adult reader.
I am sure I'd have loved it if I'd read it at 10. A family in need of money given the chance to travel to Los Angeles, away from rationing and towards adventures in dancing, radio and Hollywood. It's wish-fulfilment at its peak.
Eldest child Rachel wants to be a dancer, and meets Posy Fossil from previous book Ballet Shoes (to the delight of readers I would guess). Youngest Tim is talented on the piano and finds his own niche in their new home. It is middle child Jane, envious of her siblings' abilities and opportunities who is given the biggest chance of all...
The story goes in the way you'd expect it, with just a few curveballs (the reason for Mr Winter's inability to work seems quite shocking, the relationship between Jane and Maurice not ending as you'd think). It's quite formulaic, plot wise, but enjoyable for a reader, as you yearn for certain things to happen, and lo and behold...
As an adult, The Painted Garden is sweet, cloyingly so at times, the children actually pretty annoying. As a parent I'd be talking to my child if they spoke in the way the girls sometimes do. The entitlement they seem to feel that they deserve certain things really don't sit well with me.
The awful stereotyping of Italian and 'coloured' accents also was though I suppose of its time, something I'd alter if I read it to my child. And I would also have to discuss the probably-inappropriate present of a cigarette case to an eight-year-old too! I know it would have not been unusual then.
Overall, a great children's classic read and a trip down Of-Its-Time Lane for an adult reader.