REVIEW: The Children in the Square
Nov. 26th, 2015 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe Children in the Square: Pamela Mansbridge Nelson. This edition 1960
I was a bit hesitant about buying this book, because while I enjoyed Mansbridge’s A Case for Caroline, I didn’t like The Larchwood Mystery as much. I also started reading it when I hadn’t a hope of finishing it in one sitting, life got busy and I had to put it down and pick it up a lot over a relatively long period of time, although was somewhat partly abetted by it being quite a substantial book of its type, coming to 208 pages.
Freda and Dick Ford are a bit disgruntled at having to move from London to the seaside town of Helmstone (a Brighton substitute?) because of younger brother Simon’s health. Their father has brought a house in a stately square that has been subdivided into flats, taking on the previous renter. One of them is Miss Smith, whose father used to own the building and who seems quite eccentric. In the other live a Miss Bartlett and her niece Stephanie, a musical prodigy who’s just a few months younger than Freda. Freda is a bit put off by the general assumption that they’ll be friends – she likes to make her own mind up about things and people.
Freda and her slightly older brother are old enough to be trusted to go out on their own, and they have a little time before starting at their new schools to get to know the place. Simon has to wait until September to go to school and has to mind his health, much to his irritation – not that he wants to rush about like some boisterous twins he’s introduced to, he’d rather hang around with Stephanie.
Stephanie is not quite what Freda and Dick thought she’d be – she prefers to be called Steve, but is taught at home by her aunt and has to give a lot of her time to her music. The Fords believe that they can offer her a taste of a less cloistered, more ordinary life, and, in some ways, she takes to it. In others, her temperament makes things difficult. Although Miss Smith discloses a mystery about the house, it’s really the children’s friendship with Steve – especially Freda’s - that drives the story.
It’s a story of realistic events – there is an incident with the tide, but that mainly leads to mild discomfort and embarrassment - and about the Fords getting to feel at home, to the point where they can complain about tourists over the summer. Life contains small disappointments, adult decisions both curious and understandable and Freda learning to allow for different points of view – growing up a little, while the Ford children, in particular, are able to give things to their neighbours that will enrich their lives. It made for a satisfying read – a bit like Torridons’ Triumph, although the characters are a smidge younger.
I was a bit hesitant about buying this book, because while I enjoyed Mansbridge’s A Case for Caroline, I didn’t like The Larchwood Mystery as much. I also started reading it when I hadn’t a hope of finishing it in one sitting, life got busy and I had to put it down and pick it up a lot over a relatively long period of time, although was somewhat partly abetted by it being quite a substantial book of its type, coming to 208 pages.
Freda and Dick Ford are a bit disgruntled at having to move from London to the seaside town of Helmstone (a Brighton substitute?) because of younger brother Simon’s health. Their father has brought a house in a stately square that has been subdivided into flats, taking on the previous renter. One of them is Miss Smith, whose father used to own the building and who seems quite eccentric. In the other live a Miss Bartlett and her niece Stephanie, a musical prodigy who’s just a few months younger than Freda. Freda is a bit put off by the general assumption that they’ll be friends – she likes to make her own mind up about things and people.
Freda and her slightly older brother are old enough to be trusted to go out on their own, and they have a little time before starting at their new schools to get to know the place. Simon has to wait until September to go to school and has to mind his health, much to his irritation – not that he wants to rush about like some boisterous twins he’s introduced to, he’d rather hang around with Stephanie.
Stephanie is not quite what Freda and Dick thought she’d be – she prefers to be called Steve, but is taught at home by her aunt and has to give a lot of her time to her music. The Fords believe that they can offer her a taste of a less cloistered, more ordinary life, and, in some ways, she takes to it. In others, her temperament makes things difficult. Although Miss Smith discloses a mystery about the house, it’s really the children’s friendship with Steve – especially Freda’s - that drives the story.
It’s a story of realistic events – there is an incident with the tide, but that mainly leads to mild discomfort and embarrassment - and about the Fords getting to feel at home, to the point where they can complain about tourists over the summer. Life contains small disappointments, adult decisions both curious and understandable and Freda learning to allow for different points of view – growing up a little, while the Ford children, in particular, are able to give things to their neighbours that will enrich their lives. It made for a satisfying read – a bit like Torridons’ Triumph, although the characters are a smidge younger.
