REREAD Susan's Helping Hand
Feb. 26th, 2012 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllSusan's Helping Hand: Jane Shaw. The Children's Press
I bought a second copy of this book because I wasn't sure if I already owned it, and it was available cheaply at a charity shop, so it wasn't as if it would cost me dear. As it turned out, I did already own a copy, given to me be a relative. In my defence, it must be many years since I read the book, and I once described these books as Susan Does Something Indistinguishable. Having very much enjoyed this reread, I feel rather mean about that, but the titles are indistinguishable though. However, if you haven't come across the adventures of Susan Lyle and her cousins the Carmichaels, they're well worth reading.
For a book that's mainly about the alarums of a family that made me laugh quite a bit, it's a surprise that it opens with:
When Annabel's father and mother were killed by terrorists, in Kenya.
The prologue is the grim tale of what happens next to Annabel, Mary and Robert as the previously unknown aunt that's meant to be their guardian shows one face to the lawyers, but doesn't care overmuch about her charges' wellbeing or schooling in cold, unhealthy London.
Fortunately, the next chapter onwards focuses on Susan and her cousins, who have a much nicer aunt taking care of them (the Carmichaels have lost their mother and Scottish Susan's parents are in South Africa). Indeed, they have two aunts who feature in this book.
'They' are Charlotte, the eldest at about sixteen, fourteen year old Midge - the same age as Susan - and eleven year old Bill. It's their interaction that provides most of the humour, as none of them (well, the Carmicheals, at least) are slow to take up each others' faults. Susan is entirely well meaning, but her desire to help out is so great that she's no respecter of boundaries. Her helping hand often leads to unintended disasters, but, in the long run, she does manage to help for good. During the Easter holidays covered in this book, she helps to solve a crime and a mystery linked to the prologue. It's an advantage that she ignores the others' ridicule and tendency to be dismissive of coincidences.
After Midge and Susan develop chicken pox on the first day of their holidays, to their disgust and misery (about the illness and its timing), most of the family go to stay at a Kentish farm run by Aunt Barbara. Bill is persuaded not to take his model railway set, as there's no electricity, but it seemed to me that Midge took most of her library, as she was constantly reading. Midge is not one to bustle about, certainly not first thing in the morning, or indeed after (although everyone cycles for miles quite happily). Charlotte is the most responsible of them, because if there appear to be any thrills as a result of Susan's great plans, Bill is willing to come along. For big thrills, so will his sisters.
I enjoyed this more than I expected to, Shaw enjoys her characters' foibles, they play off each other well and have realistic traits: Midge is a wonderful antidote to your usual heroines of which Susan is a comic variant. I would love to get my hands on more Susans.
I bought a second copy of this book because I wasn't sure if I already owned it, and it was available cheaply at a charity shop, so it wasn't as if it would cost me dear. As it turned out, I did already own a copy, given to me be a relative. In my defence, it must be many years since I read the book, and I once described these books as Susan Does Something Indistinguishable. Having very much enjoyed this reread, I feel rather mean about that, but the titles are indistinguishable though. However, if you haven't come across the adventures of Susan Lyle and her cousins the Carmichaels, they're well worth reading.
For a book that's mainly about the alarums of a family that made me laugh quite a bit, it's a surprise that it opens with:
When Annabel's father and mother were killed by terrorists, in Kenya.
The prologue is the grim tale of what happens next to Annabel, Mary and Robert as the previously unknown aunt that's meant to be their guardian shows one face to the lawyers, but doesn't care overmuch about her charges' wellbeing or schooling in cold, unhealthy London.
Fortunately, the next chapter onwards focuses on Susan and her cousins, who have a much nicer aunt taking care of them (the Carmichaels have lost their mother and Scottish Susan's parents are in South Africa). Indeed, they have two aunts who feature in this book.
'They' are Charlotte, the eldest at about sixteen, fourteen year old Midge - the same age as Susan - and eleven year old Bill. It's their interaction that provides most of the humour, as none of them (well, the Carmicheals, at least) are slow to take up each others' faults. Susan is entirely well meaning, but her desire to help out is so great that she's no respecter of boundaries. Her helping hand often leads to unintended disasters, but, in the long run, she does manage to help for good. During the Easter holidays covered in this book, she helps to solve a crime and a mystery linked to the prologue. It's an advantage that she ignores the others' ridicule and tendency to be dismissive of coincidences.
After Midge and Susan develop chicken pox on the first day of their holidays, to their disgust and misery (about the illness and its timing), most of the family go to stay at a Kentish farm run by Aunt Barbara. Bill is persuaded not to take his model railway set, as there's no electricity, but it seemed to me that Midge took most of her library, as she was constantly reading. Midge is not one to bustle about, certainly not first thing in the morning, or indeed after (although everyone cycles for miles quite happily). Charlotte is the most responsible of them, because if there appear to be any thrills as a result of Susan's great plans, Bill is willing to come along. For big thrills, so will his sisters.
I enjoyed this more than I expected to, Shaw enjoys her characters' foibles, they play off each other well and have realistic traits: Midge is a wonderful antidote to your usual heroines of which Susan is a comic variant. I would love to get my hands on more Susans.
