taken from Goodreads:
"The best kind of writer, strange and spooky and surprising, never sentimental or whimsical."-Kelly Link
"A writer of wild humor and unrestrained imagination."-Oxford Companion to Children's Literature
"This year can boast one genuine small masterpiece. . . . The Wolves of Willoughby Chase . . . almost a copybook lesson in those virtues that a classic children's book must possess."-TIME
This is the first complete collection of Joan Aiken's beloved Armitage stories-and it includes four new, unpublished stories. After Mrs. Armitage makes a wish, the Armitage family has "interesting and unusual" experiences every Monday (and the occasional Tuesday). The Board of Incantation tries to take over their house to use as a school for young wizards; the Furies come to stay; and a cutout from a cereal box leads into a beautiful and tragic palace garden. Charming and magical, the uncommon lives of the Armitage family will thrill and delight readers young and old. Includes Joan Aiken's "Prelude" from Armitage, Armitage, Fly Away Home, as well as introductions from Joan Aiken's daughter, Lizza Aiken, and best-selling author Garth Nix.
Best known for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken (19242004) wrote over a hundred books and won the Guardian and Edgar Allan Poe awards. After her first husband's death, she supported her family by copyediting at Argosy magazine and an advertising agency before turning to fiction. She went on to write for Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Vanity Fair, Argosy, Women's Own, and many others.
The full list of stories included in this book are as follows:Yes, but Today Is Tuesday
Broomsticks and Sardines
The Frozen Cuckoo
Sweet Singeing in The Choir
The Ghostly Governess
Harriet’s Birthday Present
Dragon Monday
Armitage, Armitage, Fly Away Home (also known as “A Batch of Magic Wands”)
Rocket Full of Pie
Doll’s House to Let, Mod. Con.
Tea at Ravensburgh
The Land of Trees and Heroes
Harriet’s Hairloom
The Stolen Quince Tree
The Apple of Trouble
The Serial Garden
Mrs. Nutti’s Fireplace
The Looking-Glass Tree
Miss Hooting’s Legacy
Kitty Snickersnee
Goblin Mujsic
The Chinese Dragon
Don’t Go Fishing on Witches’ Day
Milo’s New Word
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I don't know how I made it through elementary school without reading one of the Armitage Family stories. I seriously DO NOT know how this happened, as I must have read literally every single book that Mrs. Beck had availabe in her library, but I never remember coming across any of these stories. Which is a shame, really, because this is the kind of thing I would've read over and over and over again.
I came across this book at one of the schools where I work, in the middle school library. I pulled it from the shelves, where I just browsing while I waited on a group of students, and the cover illustration really caught my eye. So I jotted down the name of the book and author on a little notepad in my purse and resolved to check it out once I had a chance to get over to the public library at home.
The stories are utterly charming, with a very innocent perspective (slightly tempered by some of the events in the last few stories in the collection), like you'd find in the Penderwick novels, and the same type of magic realism evident in stories such as Pippi Longstocking or even the Narnia books. These are very British stories, which seems to go hand in hand (at least in my eyes) with this genre of children's lit.
I do think that, when taken all together like this, some of the stories become a bit much; I found myself having to take a break from the collection every now and then just because it all seemed to become a bit repetitive and slightly boring. But overall, there's enough continuity among MOST of the stories that the collection almost reads as a novel, rather than just a short story collection. There are a few stories that seem out of order toward the end of the novel; this is where the stories get a bit darker and lose some of the innocence they contained earlier. That makes sense, of course, as Mark and Harriet must grow up as all children do.
I definitely recommend this collection for reading aloud -- they'd make perfect before-bed stories. And if you, like me, have never met the Armitage Family before, then you are in for a real treat, I must admit.
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