The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was one of my very favorite books of all time, so I've had my eye on this collection of stories for a while. I loved it. They are unapologetically and briskly strange, and a perfect little escape from the world. ( )

Generally fun to read and somewhat silly. A few were a little creepy or otherwise disconcerting. My 8 year old enjoyed the few I read aloud to his class, but I think some of his classmates didn't really understand what was going on. ( )

Because of a wish Mrs. Armitage made while she and Mr. Armitage were on their honeymoon, Mark and Harriet Armitage and their parents have a series of magical, surprising things happen to them, generally on Mondays: unicorns, witches, spells, fairy godmothers, dragons, griffins, and even twenty-three duchesses and a swimming pool full of pink ice cream. These stories were really delightful, and I can't imagine how I've missed reading any of them all these years (probably my fault for tending to avoid short story collections even by favorite writers). They're quirky and fanciful, and I especially love how, in a very Aikenish way, every odd occurrence is simply taken for granted. I'd find it hard to choose a favorite, but the title story, "The Serial Garden", stays in my mind because of its poignant ending. ( )

This is a collection of twenty-four stories about the Armitage family, written by Aiken between 1953 and 1998. She is also the author of the Wolves of Willoughby Chase series and many other children's novels and some Jane Austen sequels. The Armitages are a mother, father, daughter and son (with a new baby son in the very last story). The children are Harriet and Mark, school-aged youths who live in a world similar to our own -- except for the magic that surrounds them and causes them to have an inordinate number of adventures and problems. Before they were born, their mother wished on a magic ring that "lots of interesting and unusual things" would happen to her children. Her wish came true and the Armitage children were never bored.

In these stories, you can find

-unicorns
-mischievous metal men
-ghosts, griffins and goblins
-intolerable aunts and uncles
-wishes
-witches
-witches with grudges
-witches with a taste for children
-thieving witches

and a magical garden that brings about the saddest things to happen in any of these stories. I wish I had found these when I was a kid.

http://webereading.com/2009/10/monday-was-day-on-which-unusual-things.html ( )

The Armitage family frequently have extraordinary things happen to them, especially on Mondays: unicorns in the garden, ghosts in the spare bedroom, sea serpents, and so on. The children, Mark and Harriet, cope admirably and with considerable aplomb.

Great fun, although a bit much read all at once straight through. ( )