A review by crowyhead
Dido and Pa by Joan Aiken

5.0

Another volume in the wonderful series that began with The Wolves of Wiloughby Chase. Dido Twite is finally joyfully reunited with her old friend Simon, who is now the Duke of Battersea, only to be stolen away by her father before she and Simon can be properly reunited. Abednego Twite once again has a nefarious scheme to unseat King Richard, and he is determined that Dido will help him, like it or not. As always with the books in this series, Aiken neatly balances humor and grim reality, although this book isn't as fanciful as some of the others. One of the reviewers, in articulating why she thinks Dido is one of the finest female characters in children's literature, describes her as "resourceful, irreverent, intelligent, moral, funny, and completely unsanitized," which I think is perfectly accurate and does well at describing just what's so great about Dido. The other thing I love is that Dido has clearly grown and changed since her first appearance in Black Hearts In Battersea. She is still definitely the same girl, but older and wiser. Great stuff; I would give my eyeteeth to write half so well as Joan Aiken does.