"The next day, the children set to
work turning the ramble shamble
house into a proper home.
They propered up the chickens.
They propered up
a scarecrow.
They raked over all the mud puddles
because mud definitely isn't proper."
Early in my career, while teaching kindergarten, I read The Boxcar Children (Gertrude Chandler Warner) to my students. They loved it! I read it every year after that, no matter what grade I was teaching. Many years later, students I met would ask if they could borrow it. The appeal came from the fact that four children, on their own, made a life for themselves living in an abandoned boxcar. Do kids today dream of doing the same thing?
The five kids in this lively and heartwarming new book, created by two very accomplished artists, are sure to inspire those who dream such dreams. They (Merra, Locky, Roozle, Finn and Jory) live on their own in a 'ramble shamble house'. Because there was always work that had to be done, each took their responsibilities to the family seriously.
"Merra took care of the garden,
while Locky and Roozle chased
off the always-hungry blackbirds.
Finn fed the chickens,
and Jory looked after the mud."
They prepared meals, kept up with the work that needed to be done by working together, and Merra told them stories at night before sleep overtook them after their long, busy days. After reading a book they found in the attic, they realized they could make things even better - more like the pictures of the house they saw in that book. They worked hard to make it 'proper'. It turned out, after all their hard work, perhaps 'proper' was not better. Bigger problem: where was Jory?
Full of charm and delight in both words and pictures, this book will win favor with young readers and leave them with hopes to meet these appealing characters again.
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