Richard Kennedy (7) (1932–)

Halfway through and I think this is one I'm going to want to buy for my permanent collection - even though I really don't like to hang onto books.
--------------

Done.

Yup. A perfect fantasy for all ages from 8 to 108. Beautifully, poetically written. Dolls, orphans, intrigue, romance, pirates, treasure, adventure, magic, mystery, dreams, brewed to enchant. Since I don't think my husband would like it (unless maybe he were reading it aloud to his grandkids) I can't give it the full 5 stars - but I do wish I'd owned a copy when I as a child as I would have read it over & over & over again. It's got the hallmarks of a classic children's fantasy, but was unbelievably written only 3 decades ago.

For example, one of the special things about it is that it can be read on so many levels. For example: Not all 8 year-olds are going to understand Skivvy's anguish, but even though I couldn't personally empathize, I ached for him as he tried to use numerology to save his soul. But as Kennedy explains, though Mathematics is the Queen of Sciences, Numerology is her wayward daughter, a wanton who will lure you with her easy ways until your mind is ruined and your life's course doomed. A child too young to understand the details of that will just skim until the next bit of adventure, but when she gets a little older and understands, the book will mean all the more to her.

That's just one example. But this would be a wonderful book to read aloud as a family and talk about, too, so I really recommend you do that for your school-age children.… (plus d'informations)