Tag Archives: adoption

Mansfield Park: A mature but, for us, challenging novel by Jane Austen

Of all Jane Austen’s heroines, Fanny Price of Mansfield Park is surely the least appealing, the most ‘foreign’ to our age. Unlike Emma’s assertiveness and Lizzy’s humour, Fanny’s combination of self-effacement and moral conviction are at odds with modern core … Continue reading

Posted in 18th Century, British, Classic, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel, Novel of Manners, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What would you do if your parent left you and your siblings in the car and never came back? That’s the start of Homecoming, a classic YA novel by Cynthia Voigt

The first in the Tillerman series, Homecoming follows the four Tillerman children after they are abandoned by their mentally ill mother in a car park. When she doesn’t come back they set out to find other relatives several states away. … Continue reading

Posted in 11 years and up, 20th Century YA, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Goodnight, Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

Goodnight, Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian is a historical novel and modern children’s classic set in World War II Britain. Billeting arrangements bring together Mister Tom, a gruff and grieving old man, and Willie Beech, a starved and abused child … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, Children's Classics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild is a book that I loved growing up and still enjoy. It is the story of Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil, orphans adopted and sent to England by a travelling collector of fossils and raised … Continue reading

Posted in 20th Century Children's, 7 years and up, Children's Classics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment