Retrato do autor

Betty K. Erwin (1922–1989)

Autor(a) de Go to the Room of the Eyes

7 Works 66 Membros 3 Críticas

Obras por Betty K. Erwin

Go to the Room of the Eyes (1969) 30 exemplares
Who is Victoria? (1973) 12 exemplares
Behind the Magic Line, (1969) 8 exemplares
The summer sleigh ride, (1966) 6 exemplares
Aggie, Maggie, and Tish (1969) 5 exemplares
Where's Aggie? 4 exemplares
Jenseits des Zauberkreises. (1972) 1 exemplar

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome legal
Erwin, Betty Koch
Data de nascimento
1922
Data de falecimento
1989
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Whitehall, Wisconsin, USA
Educação
University of Wisconsin (BA, MD)
Ocupações
children's book author
young adult writer
short-story writer

Membros

Críticas

Retrieved a record: Bibliographic match uncertain.
 
Assinalado
glsottawa | Apr 4, 2018 |
This book made me late to ALA Midwinter. Where they give away lots and lots of free books.

I loved the Capitol Hill setting, especially because I was in Capitol Hill while I was reading it. I didn't find the house which is perhaps lucky because I would have felt compelled to ring the doorbell and demand that the current residents read this. I would possibly have demanded a tour as well.

The plot follows a satisfying arc as a large family of interesting kids moves into an old house and finds a trail of clues to something fabulous left by the last large family of interesting kids, a generation ago. It's also pretty funny- I was laughing aloud before I got to the second page. I liked the parents very much, and had no trouble telling all the kids apart. There's some odd stuff about integration and prejudice that felt entirely tacked-on, like a poster stuck over a hole in the wall. There's also some strange but compelling stuff about PTSD that feels less grafted on to me.

Recommended, unless you live in Seattle, in which case there's no excuse for not reading it.

… (mais)
 
Assinalado
satyridae | Apr 5, 2013 |
This is a quick read, and probably well-suited to bedtime stories, following the first book's pattern of short, self-contained episodes.
As the story opens, the three mysterious spinster sisters Aggie, Maggie, and Tish are flying away on a combined quest. They leave their precious magical trinkets in the keeping of the rather commonplace Eliot children: Aggie's magical seven-league garters with fluffy blonde Annabelle, the time-turning watch with big sister Edith, and the story-telling diaper pins with Baby Ben. Tomboy Ginnie still has her dog Wolf (who is really a wolf), and I don't think Jim gets anything.
After some cryptic letters from the sisters, hinting at adventures, the plane returns in the middle of a snowstorm, where the children perform well both in believing that the plane will come and in bringing adults to help the pilot land safely. But only Maggie and Tish emerge - they have lost Aggie somewhere along the way. There will be more odd adventures before she returns.

Comments and SPOILERS:

The best thing about this book is probably the depiction of the turning year, and the winter weather is beautifully evoked, from the excitement of the first snow to the dreariness of delayed thaw. Erwin really has a handle on small town life, though gentled for a child's reading. It's also nice to see the Eliot kids maturing and thinking ahead.

Plotwise, the book is quite disappointing. While both books are episodic, the first is tidy - each storyline has a resolution. This one leaves a number of issues dangling in the wind, and about half the time the kids are let off consequences instead of having to work anything out. For instance, Annabelle decides to give her baby brother away, and fobs him off on a semi-senile old lady who lives alone in a tumbledown house outside town. Does she have to brave the woman's fierce-looking dog and admit her lie? Does she befriend the old lady and learn to look beyond appearances?
No. Edith turns time backwards for her, and she just doesn't give her brother away. That's it.
Then, Ginny has been letting Wolf inside to sleep on her bed, and when her father asks her if he was inside last night, she lies and says he wasn't. This was the night a farmer's sheep were savaged, but she can't prove Wolf's innocence without admitting her first lie, and figures her father won't believe her if she changes her story anyways. So Wolf is put on a collar and chain, and one night Ginny and he run away to Maggie's house. Maggie promises to tell Mr. Eliot that Wolf doesn't need a collar or chain. That's it. No resolution to the farmer or his sheep or what dog really did the damage, never mentioned again.

There were some magical moments, but too much of this book left me wondering 'what was the point of that?' Early on Mrs. Eliot works herself into a tizzy about old ladies travelling and leaving their homes instead of staying put they way they should, and later she is feeling overwhelmed and overworked, but again, those feelings pretty much vanish, and she doesn't really do anything in the story. So what was the point?
I don't think I would have felt too much differently if I'd read this one as a kid, and there may be a reason why the first book is the only one that ever seems to show up as a stumper.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
bmlg | Jun 5, 2011 |

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Associated Authors

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Estatísticas

Obras
7
Membros
66
Popularidade
#259,059
Avaliação
½ 3.5
Críticas
3
ISBN
6
Línguas
1

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