Biblioteche dell'Alto Adige

Abstract: The middle book of the Bastable Children's trilogy once again proves Edith Nesbit to be a world-class humorist with a special touch for depicting the way children speak, feel, and behave. Another set of summer-holiday misadventures proves so side-splittingly funny, it's like discovering the British Mark Twain. And though there is no actual magic going on, as in so many of Nesbit's beloved books, the children make amazing things happen with their imaginations, their sense of play, and their extraordinary talent for getting into trouble.Having been sent away to Albert's uncle's house in the country, to get them away from the Blackheath mansion of their "Indian uncle" after a particularly disastrous game of Jungle Book, the six Bastable children find all kinds of wild and woolly things to do in the Kentish farm country. Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noël, and H. O. are joined by Denny and Daisy Foulkes, the children of their father's business associate. They create and join the "Society of Wouldbegoods" which hopes to shape up their character by doing good deeds. But their childish outlooks, and their perverse inability to "mind their own business," leads them into situations which makes them out to naughtier than normal!What good works do the Wouldbegoods try? They try to erect a tombstone to memorialise a neighbour-lady's son, shot down on a faraway battlefield. They fall prey to a scoundrel who locks them in a tower and demands money of them. They wreak havoc on the waterways by tampering with a river lock, damming a river (while playing at being beavers), and trying to control an indoors flood. They "adopt" a baby seemingly lost or abandoned. They get in trouble over a dead fox, a soft drink stand, and (my favourite chapter) an attempt to have a circus using untrained farm animals as talent. There's also a silly military adventure, a make-believe pilgrimage, and a bit of romantic matchmaking to round off the summer.With so many children to keep track of, it would be easy to lose sight of some of them and not be able to tell them apart– but not in Nesbit's hands. Each of the eight children stands out in his or her own way, and they are all lovably silly and at the same time admirable. They take on ridiculous airs– especially Oswald, our narrator– but they also aspire to a nobility of character, and in their cracked way they achieve it. They are vulnerable, yet full of fun and bursting with ideas. When their escaped "learned pig" leads them into the middle of a missionary society's tea party, a little girl who lives in the house speaks for me (and, I think, nearly anyone else who would read this book)– I do wish I could play like that, though perhaps it is better heard about than done!10% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities by the Publisher,=================KEYWORDS/TAGS: Wouldbegoods, Bastable, children, Edith Nesbit, action, adventure, in trouble, folklore, children's stories, fables, mystery, solve, solutions, trilogy, behave, misbehave, Jungle, Bill's Tombstone, Tower Of Mystery, miscreant, scoundrel, Water-Works, cry, Circus, Beavers, Young Explorers, explore, Arctic, High-Born Babe, baby, Hunting, Fox, Sale, Antiquities, Benevolent, Canterbury, Pilgrims, pilgrimage, Dragon's Teeth, Army-Seed, feed, fodder, Albert's Uncle's Grandmother, Long-Lost, Patriotic, Hose Play, Persevere, Little Beasts, Denny, Alice, Noël, Hands, Heavy Bars, Hedge, Laughter, Degraded, Nurse-Maid, Furious, Kid, Jugs, fill, Earth, Look Inside, Dog-Cart, Young Lady, Lead, Ambush, Council, Apple-Tree, Marry, Lady, Blackheath, mansion, wild and woolly, Kent, countryside, Dora, Oswald, narrator, Denny, Daisy, romantic, matchmaking, summer, nobility, noble character,

Abstract: In the days when people were owned by the land, two young girls found their power by becoming ghosts, then spirit guides. This is their origin-story...Their parents were serfs, and belonged to two different dukedoms. Falling in love endangered them both. Becoming pregnant with twins made this even worse.Their Dad had to raise them by himself, as Mother died shortly after birthing them. But her spirit remained on Earth to watch over them. Sal and Jude could see her, and knew their Dad could feel her presence. But the problem in survival was staying hidden, because they were on hunting land the King claimed as his own. And forces were at work to find them...Excerpt:We were both born as twins. But as you can see, we were never identical. Jude had black hair and I had blond. And our Da told us that we were more alike than not, otherwise. We liked to drink our milk and smile and gurgle. And neither of us cried much.But we didn't know our Ma much, well not at first. She caught a fever a few days after we were born and died soon after. Da was upset by this, but he often told us that our smiles and gurgles took all the pain away. That, and when he went out to hunt that night, he found a white and black spotted milk goat who had wandered off into the woods and was following him around as he tried to hunt. Her udders were full, and looked tight and painful to Da. So he took the goat home to us, so we could have some milk until he could find where she had wandered off from.It was that night where we saw our Ma again. She was smiling at us, and we smiled back. Da couldn't see her, so he didn't understand why we were so happy. But with full bellies, we went to sleep and Da milked the rest from that goat and put the milk into skins to make into cheese. Then he tethered the goat right outside the hut to graze.He never did find out who that goat belonged to. No farm around us was missing any. And we had that goat until we could eat solid food, Da said. And then it wandered off again one day. But it wasn't the last time both tame and wild life around our cabin would take care of us.We grew like sprouts, Da told us. Soon we were walking and getting into trouble. When he went off to hunt food for us to eat, he soon devised a system of tying us to opposite corners of the cabin, just long enough to not get us tangled with each other or anything else. Everything up and out of our reach, and secured so it couldn't fall on us.What he didn't know is that the mice and birds would come to entertain us while he was gone. We would hear symphonies by the birds, and watch balancing and tumbling acts by the mice. And we knew Da was close when they would combine the most dramatic action with the trilling accompaniment of the birds. And when the door opened, the birds and mice would vanish, leaving us smiling and clapping just as Da opened the door with some game he had caught.. . .In those days, the land wasn't owned by people, it was all property of the King or Queen or Prince, depending on who was in power when. And where the land was deeded to a local count or baron, the property title could be withdrawn at any time.People were property of the land. And were supposed to stay with it. Our family, our Da and Ma, were from two different deeds. They'd met at a trading festival and fell in love.Both Dukes wanted both of them, or would be just as happy to split them up so they could re-mate to someone else within the land deed they belonged to. But our parents eloped into hiding - and away from everyone they knew, to keep their families and themselves safe.And of course, Da and Ma loved each other very much. When Ma found she was pregnant, that made the problem very serious. You can't split a child...