Who Knew Peppermints Could Be So Dangerous

Hello my lovely readers, I have finally dug myself out of the snow.  It has been a crazy week involving a lot of snow, a lot of station time, and not a whole lot of blog rambling, my most humble apologies.  I did however manage to squeeze in all kinds of reading time, which besides making me a very happy shut in, makes it possible for me to ramble my little brains out for a couple of posts.  I was also in a very nostalgic mood so I found a couple of books from back in my first library days to keep me company.  Peppermints in the Parlor is a middle grade book I recall rechecking out several times.  It was always a wee bit confusing to me, but it had a spunky girl and a mean old lady and that was one of my favorite story lines growing up.  Without further ado and SPOILERS AHEAD on with the rambling.

Emily Luccock has lost both her parents in a tragic boating accident and she is being sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle Twice, so called because her aunt is her mothers sister, and her uncle is her fathers brother, and when they married they became Emily's Aunt and Uncle twice over.  Though sad at her parents passing, Emily is excited to live with her aunt and uncle, recalling the wonderful times she had at Sugar Hill Hall, the parties, the beauty and splendor, the love of her aunt and uncle.  Emily arrives on a foggy evening in San Francisco and instead of being greeted by her glorious aunt and uncle, is forced to wait for hours until she is picked up.  At first Emily does now recognize her aunt, who has gone from a famous beauty, to a washed out, tired and scared woman.  Aunt Twice tells Emily that she must do exactly as she is told no matter how hard.  When they finally get to Sugar Hill Hall, Emily is horrified to see it in the hands of a snake like woman by the name of Mrs. Meeching who makes it very clear that she considers Emily no more then a common scullery maid. In the front parlor is a huge bowl of Emily's favorite treat, shiny, red and white peppermints.  She is informed under no circumstances is she to ever take one.  Aunt Twice takes Emily through the house, which has lost most of its splendor, through the industrial kitchen to the cellars where she is given a tiny
room, more like a cell really.  Aunt Twice tells Emily that she is a prisoner in her own home forced to work to keep somebody alive.  She will not give Emily any other details and begs her not to ask questions.  Emily is then handed over to Tilly, the rough young maid who is thrilled to finally have somebody beneath her.  Tilly goes back and forth between being Emily's friend, and being mean.  Emily's first task is to help Tilly with supper, which consists of a thin grey soup and moldy bread lumps.  These are given to the dozen or so old people who live in the mansion now.  Mrs. Meeching has turned Sugar Hill Hall into a old folks home.  The residents are silent and barely pick at their unappetizing food.  Emily notices that one resident is missing and is informed that the resident had stolen a peppermint and is now locked in the Room of Remembrance for punishment.  After the residents are fed Tilly and Emily go back to their own portion of soup and moldy bread, forced to watch as Aunt Twice prepares a huge feast of the most lucious foods for Mrs. Meeching and her cohort Mrs. Plumly, the grandmother like, knitting one of the pair.  Emily also meets Kipper, a fishermans son who while doing the occasional odd job for the Hall does what he can to help Emily.  Eventually Emily decides that since she can't help her self or her aunt, she will help the old people.  She starts slipping them fish oil so that they have appetites enough to eat the disgusting food, forcing Mrs.

Meeching to get them fresh food.  Emily and Kipper smuggle a kitten up to the old folks, along with some hobby supplies.  This helps to awaken the older folks, and Emily learns just how feisty they can be.  Mrs. Plumly has taken a couple opportunities to smuggle Emily to her rooms and feed her tea and cakes, she tells Emily that she too is a prisoner in the Hall, albeit a luckier one then Emily or her Aunt.  These visits continue as Emily continues to help the old people.  One horrible day Emily, Kipper and the old folks are all caught and Emily is sent to the Room of Remembrance.  Kipper finds a way to unlock her cell and they discover a trapdoor and tunnel that leads to a seedy tavern.  Their they discover that it is actually the sweet Mrs. Plumly who is in charge, slipping Emily truth serum in her tea to discover what she is up too.  They also discover that the old folks home is just a front for a smuggling operation.  Emily is summoned to Kippers house to hear the confession of an old sea captain who says he framed her Uncle Twice for a murder and used it as blackmail to get the Sugar Hill Hall.  It is all resolved, Mrs. Meeching and Mrs. Plumly are arrested after they are trapped by peppermint pelting old folk, and Aunt and Uncle Twice are reunited.  The family and the old folks, Tilly and Kipper all get their happy ending.

When I was in elementary and middle school, I had a thing for books about poor orphan girls and cruel mistresses that kept them locked up and enslaved, I am not sure why this trope appealed to me so much, but there you have it.  This book like I said was full on nostalgia for me, I remember reading it back when I was 8 or 9 and loving it.  The heroine is great because she does not start all spit and fire, and in fact has to dig pretty deep to keep herself from cracking.  I loved that when she realized that she could not immediately help herself or her aunt that she decided to help the old folks instead. Her initial reaction was always one of kindness, which seems to be lacking in some of the newer books.  I liked for the most part how the older people were portrayed, at first beaten down by the cruel Mrs. Meeching, but they themselves rallied and

became individuals again.  I liked how they reminded Emily that they too were people, with talents and lives. I love love love the character of Tilly, she is probably one of the more realistic characters in this fairly straight forward trope tale.  She is constantly torn between wanting Emily as a friend, and trying to be a good person as far as she knows how and doing her best to get ahead in the world.  She is glad to finally not be the low man on the totem pole and give Emily all the crap jobs, while enjoying the slim perks of what she considers more senior jobs.  She eventually proves herself a faithful, if somewhat rough friend and finds a place with Emily and her family.  Kipper acts at the semi-plausible way for Emily to solver her problems, that along with a gold coin gets her all the supplies she needs to make this story possible, I also love that every other sentence out of his mouth starts with "As Pa always says".  The ending is still a bit confusing for me, seeming to add characters and circumstances that appear out of nowhere to try and make sense of Uncle Twice's disappearance and the reasoning behind Aunt Twice's servitude.  Overall the book is pretty straight forward, sticking with a formula that works, while adding some great characters and just enough creepiness to keep you turning the pages. This is a quick read for most of us and is completely suitable for the 9 and up crowd. I give it 7 out of 10 peppermints.
What books do you remember rereading as a kid?  Do you find it hard to track down these books?  Are you ever disappointed when you reread your childhood favorites?  Is it funny that a grown woman is reading children's books and loving them?

Grave Authors

So between my trip to the old graveyard in Philadelphia and my absolute love for some of the spooky books I am in the middle of reading and the scary movies I have been watching non-stop I have been a bit obsessed with gravestones/crypts/tombs.  I know it is a bit macabre (man I love that word), but hey tis the season right :-)  Here are some grave sites of some of my favorite authors who are now writing from the other side.

C.S. Lewis

 I love this clean and simple just like his stories.  I also like that he was buried with his brother because family was very important to him.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Buried with his wife they have the names Luthien and Beren inscribed under there names, referring to the most beautiful of the Children of Iluvatar becoming mortal for the love of Beren...even his grave site is a story

Anne McCaffery

Note the curled up dragon forever guarding our Dragonwriter of Pern.  Up above is a curled up kitten to also keep her company.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Though avowedly not a Christian (he considered himself a Spiritualist) he was eventually buried under a cross in a church with his wife.  The last words he ever spoke were to his wife telling her "You are wonderful"

William Shakespeare

He is actually buried inside of a church instead of in a traditional graveyard.  His epitaph is also a curse on anybody who would try and remove his bones from this place!  

Well there you have it, a little glimpse into my slightly twisted frame of mind this morning.  I hope you found it informative and only a little creepy.  Have duty this weekend so come back on Monday to see what kind of blood and guts mood I am then.

What authors grave site would you like to visit?  What sort of blessing/curse would you put on your headstone?  Am I really weird or just in the Halloween mood?

Creepy Dolls

Finally the weather is starting to cooperate, we had a week that was in the 90's which completely disrupted my reading schedule.  Yesterday however we had a nice gigantic storm that has dropped the temps to fall levels and now the leaves are finally starting to turn.  In celebration of this wondrous event I shall ramble about a bit of a ghost story I recently finished.  Doll Bones by Holly Black.  I usually prefer this authors MG stuff to her YA stuff so I had high hopes for this one, plus creepy dolls are awesome.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD

Three 12 year old friends Zach, Poppy and Alice have an extensive imaginary game that they all play together.  They use customized action figures, scenes built from stuff they find and of course their own imaginations.  They have been playing the game for years and it is the focus of their friendship.  At this point in time the central figure in the game is an old doll that Poppy's mother keeps locked in a cabinet, hoping to sell it to an antique dealer some day. The kids call her the Queen and imagine she is locked in the cabinet under a curse.  We learn a bit about our trio.  Zach has recently joined the basketball team and is excelling at it, his favorite character to play is William the Blade, a pirate with unknown parentage.  His father who left three years ago has recently come back and the three of them (Mom, Dad, and Zach) are trying to adjust to being a family again.  Alice lost her parents when she was young and is being raised by her super strict grandmother.  Her main character in the game is Lady Jaye a thief who is as wild and impetuous as Alice is careful and thoughtful.  Alice lives in fear of her grandmother taking away the things she loves, being in school plays and hanging out with her friends being chief among them.  Poppy is one of several siblings, all of whom (besides Poppy) have a hoodlum like reputation that they delight in perpetrating. Poppy tends to play the villains and is able to keep the story going better then anybody.  Of the three she is most attached to the

game.  Zach comes home from school one day and finds his back of action figures he uses to play the game missing.  Turns out his father was concerned that he was not focusing enough on his basketball and that he might get teased in school, so he threw them out.  Of course this sends Zach into a bit of a tailspin, ultimately deciding to never play the game again.  He harshly tells Alice and Poppy that he is to old to be playing it anymore.  Alice accepts it sadly, but resigned.  Poppy however does not accept it and bugs Zach about it incessantly.  Finally late one night Zach gets talked into meeting with Poppy and Alice outside.  Poppy produces the Queen doll and proceeds to tell the other two that she had a dream/vision that a girl named Eleanor came to her and told her that the doll they call The Queen is actually made from her body.  She said she had died and her father so overcome with grief could not let her go and made a clay from her bones to make the doll, used her hair for the dolls hair, and then placed the remainder of her ashes inside the dolls body.  The ghost girl told Poppy that she couldn't rest until she was buried in her empty grave.  Zach and Alice are both skeptical, but are finally convinced to go on an a quest to bury the doll.  They board a bus in the middle of the night and are a little confused when people continually refer to the four of them, and their quiet blond friend.  At first they thing people are referring to the doll which Poppy has taken to carrying around like a baby, but it becomes more obvious that people really think there is a fourth member of the party.  The original plan was to be back before dark the next day so Alice would not be in trouble, but like all good adventures that quickly becomes impossible.  Many adventures follow including, pop rock donuts, a stolen sailboat and a night in a library.  Zach starts having dreams about the ghost girl along with Poppy and while it is never 100% explained it seems that after her mother died Eleanor's strict Aunt came to help raise her.  She never let her play with the dolls her father made her, and continually tried to mold the girl into a proper young lady.  For some reason Eleanor ended up being chased to the roof of her house where she fell
to her death.  Zach, Alice and Poppy have many fights and find out that adventuring in real life is not at all like it is in the stories (where they never seem to have to take a bathroom break).  Eventually they are able to complete their quest and bury the doll in her proper grave.  The adventure gives them a new game to play, on that is more verbal and story based and less play based, a more grown up version if you will.
Ok so I obviously glossed over a lot of detail in the synopsis, but you should go read it for your self anyways.  I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this book.  I had read a couple good reviews on it so I was hopeful.  Over all I really really liked it and kind of want to give it to every 12 year old I know. Best parts-I loved the friendship between the three kids.  With each one coming from a different family dynamic, there interplay obviously helped to fill holes in each others lives.  The anger Poppy felt when Zach seemingly callously quit the game was indicative of the deep hurt she felt, not so much about the game, but Zach's dismissal of it.  Alice was a great character because unlike fierce Poppy and leader Zach who were constantly vying for control (even if it was mostly subconscious) she had to be the peace maker, the one who always had to try and balance everybody else, her friends, her family, her freedoms vs restrictions.  Her life was balanced so that she could do what she loved, while trying to not give her grandmother a reason to take it away from her.  When Zach and especially Poppy seem to disregard this when it came to the quest, Alice finally explodes, and it is glorious.  I always have a soft spot in my heart for kids who try and do the right thing and get teased for it, especially now when being "bad" is the cool thing.  Poppy's comments about the other two growing up and leaving her behind is a great look at how every kid, every person grows at their own pace, and sometimes that causes problems.  And of course they explore the whole what does it mean to grow up, when should a kid have to grow up, why is imagination and play reserved only for the very young?  All kinds of great thinking things in this book.  The only real down side was I wanted it to be a bit creepier, the cover promised a creepy ghost story on which it only partly
delivered.  There were moments, but the focus was so much on the friendship, that the ghost story was like tertiary to the other storylines.  I wanted the actual story of our little ghost girl to more fleshed out as well, the reasoning behind her being so angry was mushy at best, leaving me unconvinced that she was all that bad.  Of course part of that may have been to keep some ambiguity on weather it was really a ghost story, or a shared imaginary story between the kids.  Overall it was a great read, it had an old school adventure story feel, like the books I used to read when I was in middle school which was pretty awesome.  I would recommend it to anybody who likes friendship adventures, not to scary ghost stories, and does not have a phobia of creepy dolls :-)  I would seriously recommend it to any middle schooler especially because I think as readable for us adults as it is, it would very much speak to a person of that age group.  I give it 8 our of 10 creepy dolls.
For an added bonus check out this great creepy doll post over on Epbot funny, creepy and just awesome!
What creeps you out?  Do you like your scary books sleep with the lights on scary or just need an extra stuffed teddy scary?  Do you ever have the urge to put a super creepy figure on somebodies pillow?

It's The Most Bestest Time Of The Year

It's October people and that means it is happy fun time.  This is the best month of all for so many reasons, lets list them shall we.  First off it is my birthday month and that pretty much makes this the coolest month ever, also I am the boss of all things awesome and fun so that is good.  The weather usually starts to finally cooperate full time and I really can snuggle into my sweaters and boots.  Fall TV starts and I can find ways to correlate my TV watching to my books (this year Dr. Who, Sleepy Hollow, Downton Abbey, Once Upon A Time and Sherlock are being very literary friendly).  All kinds of yummy foods are available (think apple cider and donuts!). Of course we can't forget about Halloween, a time where you get to dress up, eat junk, scare yourself silly and pretty much live in a fantasy world of your own creating...kind of like a book.  Here are some of the creepy, dark and stormy night, shivery books that I am reading this month if you would like to read along (I'm hoping to scare myself so bad I can't sleep with at least one of these).

Doll Bones by Holly Black-A story of three friends who are caught on the edge of being children and growing up.  Along comes an antique doll they call the Queen who figures into there imaginary games...until the ghost of the girl who's bones were used to make the doll sends them on a quest to find her grave and bury her in it.  Hear lot's of great reviews and sounds like the right mix of creepy and good story.

Under My Hat edited by Jonathan Strahan-edited by the same guy who put together one of my favorite anthologies The Starry Rift this collection is full of tales of those Halloween staples we call witches.  The list of authors is pretty stellar and I am looking forward to catching a few thrills in between work stuff.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman-A boy is raised in a cemetery since infancy, living among the ghost and ghouls and whatever other creatures live in graveyards.  He must learn how to cope with both the world of the living and the dead.  Full length novels by Neil Gaiman have been hit or miss for me, but I love his short stories and his work for kids has almost always hit the sweet spot so here goes nothing.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson-This supernatural tale is a classic haunted house story, complete with malevolent spirits, hidden secrets and hopefully plenty of scares.  When I asked around to find out which book people considered the scariest, this one popped up more than any others, so here is hoping it lives up to it's scary reputation.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving-The classic story of Ichabod Crane and his experiances in the small town of Sleepy Hollow, was it really the Headless Horseman or just a prank?!?  This classic mad it on my list 'cause a) it's awesome and b) so many movies/tv shows/etc... had to catch up with the original story.

What is your favorite part about October (besides it being my birthday month of course)?  What are your favorite books/movies/tv shows to creep you out?  How are we supposed to make this month a national holiday when the stupid government is shut down?

Birds Of A Feather

One of the books I finished during The Best Weekend EVER! was one that had been on my TBR pile for awhile.  The Aviary by Kathleen O'Dell was one I had bought last summer and wanted to save for a literal rainy day,  I then put it on my overstuffed book shelf and promptly forgot about it until Hubbin found it and asked me what it was.  His finding it was perfect timing to start my fall reading so off I went.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Aviary is about Clara Dooley a 12 year old girl who has spent her life in the old Glendoveer mansion with only her mother, the cook Ruby and the old widowed Mrs. Glendoveer.  Clara has been told her whole life that she has a heart condition that makes it necessary to stay at the house and avoid any strenuous activity, this has led to Clara spending the vast majority of her life inside the walls of the Glendoveer mansion.  Besides the humans there is a huge aviary full of five different birds.  A myna bird, a cockatoo, a grackle, a kiskadee and a honey creeper .  These birds have been around longer then Clara and her mother have lived at the mansion.  One day when Clara is out tending the birds (even though they frighten her) the myna bird says "Eliott" very clearly.  Clara tells this to Mrs. Glendoveer and is told that Elliot is the name of her

youngest son who was kidnapped when he was a mere 5 months old along with his five older siblings.  Sadly Mrs. Glendoveer dies and leaves the house with a small stipend to Clara's mother and Ruby with the stipulation that they keep it in the family until the end of a set 50 year period, which will be up in a few months.  This change cause Clara's mother and Ruby to run errands outside of the house, leaving Clara completely alone for the first time in her life.  Clara starts exploring the house, discovering a long locked up nursery.  While she is up there she catches sight of a girl on her way home from school.  The next day a note is pushed through the slot of the door asking telling Clara that she had been seen at the window by the little girl the day before (who's name is Daphne) and would like to be her friend.  Clara agrees but has to sneak her friend in for visits because her mother does not want her playing with any outsiders. Daphne is curious about all the mysterious bad juju the house seems to have with the local town folk, Clara being stuck inside the estate has no idea what happened.  At some point there is a huge storm and one of the birds, the small honeycreeper is injured.  Clara takes it inside and nurses it back to health, discovering along the way that it can answer yes or no questions.  Oddly enough the bird likes to dance as well.  Clara snoops around some more and finally figures out what happened to the Glendoveer children.  The nanny had helped to kidnap the children and taken them out on a boat to take them to one of the little islands when a storm came up and sank the ship.  The bodies of the nanny and the five older children were found shortly thereafter.  Nobody knows for sure what happened, but there was nasty speculation that the children's father (a magician) had done it as a stunt to revive his show.

 Eventually Clara discovers that the birds are actually the spirits of the dead children, Mr. Glendoveer had cast a spell to bind them to the bird bodies, stuck until all six children were reunited.  The problem being that the youngest Elliot was never found.  In the almost 50 years since the incident the children have been trapped as birds waiting for there baby brother to release them.  Clara's mother finally figures out everything that she has been doing and gets very upset, Clara finally puts her foot down, asking why she is stuck at home when she feels fine, and why can't she have friends, and why is her mother afraid of her finding the truth about the Glendoveer family?!?  Clara's mother tells her that her father grew up an orphan with a cruel adoptive father.  One day he found cuff links that had belonged to Mr. Glendoveer and was convinced that he was the baby Elliot that had gone missing.  He set of to discover if this was true and dissapeared.  Clara's mother having a young baby and a missing husband went to the mansion to see if he had appeared there, he was not there, but that was when she got the position of live in caretaker.  She kept Clara hidden because she was afraid she might get mixed up with all the badness too. Clara's mother allows Daphne to come over and the girls devise a trap for a hypnotist that worked with Mr. Glendoveer for his show.  The birds have become very conversant with Clara and are able to tell her everything they are able to remember, including how the nanny had "cold eyes" which leads

Clara and Daphne to realize that she had been hypnotized. The Hypnotist (who is quit old now) and his burly bodyguard Mr. Dooley are eventually trapped in the Aviary and confess to everything.  The hypnotist did it because his family had cut him off when he went on stage, turns out he did not need the money as the family took him back eventually.  Mr. Dooley was the thug who was manning the boat during the kidnapping and managed to save baby Elliot, raising him as his own. When Elliot went back to try and find the hidden money the Hypnotist hypnotized him into staying on the island for the last 10 years.  Elliot returns to his childhood home and to his beloved wife and daughter.  The money is recovered, the spirits of the children are set free and it is assumed they all live happily ever after.

Depending on how you read this book, it is either an enduring story of friendship, family and period elegance, or it is a meh mystery with some non spooky ghost elements.  I have read several reviews of this book (after I had finished it of course, didn't want to be influenced ahead of time) and most people seemed to look at it as less a mystery/ghost story and more of a period, Gothic children's story.  I think it works best if thought of in that manner.  The character of Clara is great, the author set up a believable reason for her to be isolated, which gave credibility to her almost complete naivete when it came to the family history.  It made the process of finding things out with her exciting instead of eye-rolling.  Daphne, who may be my favorite character ever is just awesome.  She is spunky and dramatic and reminds me a bit of Anne of Green Gables getting her ideas from books (especially Boys Adventure Magazine).  She is a true friend to Clara with no stupid interruptions from boys or jealousy or any annoying stuff like that.  The relationship between Clara and her mother is also wonderful and about as realistic as a book with ghosts and spirit bird children can be.  The

birds were a pretty cool addition, kind of creepy and yet not scary.  The setting was awesome, I totally want to go visit this mansion and poke around in all the rooms now. The style was a great throwback/reminiscent of the way books used to be written before they all had to be preachy or super dark or hip, when family and friendship where the most important part of life, and telling a good story is all a book needed.  The mystery itself was not that impressive, I had it all figured out in the first couple of chapters and the biggest mysteries were solved about 2/3 of the way through the book, not leaving a whole lot of tension for a dark and stormy night which I would have preferred given that it had all the elements for a bit more of a good old fashioned ghost story.  Overall it was a great little book, suitable from anybody from the 9 year old range all the through the adult who loves a good period tale.  The story is simple, sweet, fun, and with just enough supernatural to make it a bit spooky but not scary (so no nightmares for you wussypants :-) ). Also this book has one of the coolest covers ever.  I give it 7 out of 10 peacock feathers.
What sort of YA books do you like to read?  What time period is your favorite to read?  What animal would you want your soul to be trapped in for 50 years?