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Nancy Keane's | Booktalks -- Quick and Simple | |
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Wood,
Maryrose.
THE MYSTERIOUS HOWLING New York : Balzer & Bray, 2010 IL 3-6, RL 6.8 ISBN 0061791059 (2 booktalks) |
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Booktalk #1 When fifteen year old Miss Penelope Lumley accepts a position as governess to the children who live at Ashton Place, a fabulous estate, she has no idea what she is facing. She finds three children, two boys and a girl, who have been found living in the nearby woods, apparently raised by wolves. Alexander nips to keep his siblings in line; Cassiopeia has a bark that is worse than her bite; and Beowulf is quite proficient at chasing squirrels. Rescued by Lord Ashton who is determined to give them a home, and tame these wild creatures, Penelope comes to oversee their education and train them to be children, not wolves. However, someone on the estate doesn’t like the idea of these half-wild children being around. Penelope is making great strides in teaching them how to behave in society when, at the Christmas party where they are to be introduced, a mysterious someone sabotages their success and turns the guests against the children. Who could dislike them so much? After all, they are only poor, unfortunate, orphaned children. (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2011-2012) Booktalk #2 Fifteen year old Miss Penelope Lumley is on her way to her first position as a governess. Her teachers at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females have trained her well for this position. When Miss Lumley arrives at Ashton Place, she begins to think something is off about the position. Lady Constance does not really want to speak about the children and insists that Miss Lumley sign a binding contract before she even meets the children. Believing that she can handle any child, Penelope signs the contract and is excited to meet the children. When she is directed to the barn, she hears growling and wonders what sort of animal is housed there. What she learns is that those howls are coming from the children. They are wild children that may have been raised by wolves. It will be up to Penelope to civilize them and teach them what they need to know to live in the household of Lord Frederick and Lady Constance. |
| SUBJECTS:
Governesses -- Fiction.
Feral children -- Fiction. Orphans -- Fiction. Balls (Parties) -- Fiction. Christmas -- Fiction. |
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