REVIEW: The Day the Ceiling Fell Down
Jul. 23rd, 2022 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe Day the Ceiling Fell Down: Jenifer Wayne. Heineman, reprint 1978. (First published 1961)
Perhaps a more accurate title would have been ‘The Day the Ceiling Fell Down and the Summer that Followed’ although it would have been too long a title.
‘Really,’ sighed Louisa on the way to school, ‘everything happens to us.’ Rose’s face was still tear-stained; at home there seemed to be one mess after the other;’ (p. 59)
In some ways that’s an unrepresentative quote from a book that made me shout with laughter at some points, mainly at the antics of Louisa and Rose’s brother. We never learn their surnames, but Louisa, 14, Japhet, 10, and Rose, 7, live in a cottage converted from two buildings out in the country. One hot summer’s day, they and their mother come home to find that the ceiling of Louisa’s bedroom has fallen in. They find a couple of other things have fallen too that give the children a secret mystery to pursue all summer.
Louisa is the responsible older sibling, who feels even her parents need her protection. Young Rose is always a step behind, but sometimes the most perceptive. And Japhet, named for a grandfather, is full of imagination – perhaps dangerously stirred by the TV shows he loves to watch – who is not so hot on thinking through the consequences. Although his sisters have their own adventures, he’s the instigator of many events that make their parents’ motto practically, ‘This is the last straw.’ (It never is.)
That eventfulness is why I selected the quote above. All these events are credible in isolation, but taken together, they make for a very, very busy summer, featuring tramps, gipsies (negative stereotypes, ahoy) and having to call the police and repairmen several times.
The characters are wonderfully drawn, and the author settles comfortably in each character’s POV. However, considering this was a reprint, there were a lot of typos throughout, and as the quasi-comic quest continues, it never really has much purpose, although it makes them all realise that blood is thicker than water and that they wouldn’t change their family for anything. Louisa, at least, learns to sieve through what she’s told even more carefully. There are far too many flaws to the book, but still, I shouted with laughter at times, and ultimately was glad I don’t have to deal daily with 10-year-old-boy logic.
Perhaps a more accurate title would have been ‘The Day the Ceiling Fell Down and the Summer that Followed’ although it would have been too long a title.
‘Really,’ sighed Louisa on the way to school, ‘everything happens to us.’ Rose’s face was still tear-stained; at home there seemed to be one mess after the other;’ (p. 59)
In some ways that’s an unrepresentative quote from a book that made me shout with laughter at some points, mainly at the antics of Louisa and Rose’s brother. We never learn their surnames, but Louisa, 14, Japhet, 10, and Rose, 7, live in a cottage converted from two buildings out in the country. One hot summer’s day, they and their mother come home to find that the ceiling of Louisa’s bedroom has fallen in. They find a couple of other things have fallen too that give the children a secret mystery to pursue all summer.
Louisa is the responsible older sibling, who feels even her parents need her protection. Young Rose is always a step behind, but sometimes the most perceptive. And Japhet, named for a grandfather, is full of imagination – perhaps dangerously stirred by the TV shows he loves to watch – who is not so hot on thinking through the consequences. Although his sisters have their own adventures, he’s the instigator of many events that make their parents’ motto practically, ‘This is the last straw.’ (It never is.)
That eventfulness is why I selected the quote above. All these events are credible in isolation, but taken together, they make for a very, very busy summer, featuring tramps, gipsies (negative stereotypes, ahoy) and having to call the police and repairmen several times.
The characters are wonderfully drawn, and the author settles comfortably in each character’s POV. However, considering this was a reprint, there were a lot of typos throughout, and as the quasi-comic quest continues, it never really has much purpose, although it makes them all realise that blood is thicker than water and that they wouldn’t change their family for anything. Louisa, at least, learns to sieve through what she’s told even more carefully. There are far too many flaws to the book, but still, I shouted with laughter at times, and ultimately was glad I don’t have to deal daily with 10-year-old-boy logic.
