Common Sense Note
Parents should know that this novel features kids using poor judgment: Indigo hangs out his window in order to cure his vertigo, Rose eats paint, and Saffy, the central character, hides in her friend's car in order to join her family on vacation (without telling her mother).
These characters don't get hurt, but families who read this book may want to talk about the Cassons' hands-off parenting style, while restating their own philosophy and rules.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Kate Pavao
The plotting is solid here, but it's the characters that make this book such a fun and fantastic read. This is the story of adopted Saffy finding her place in her family, sure, but it's also an introduction to the nice, but nutty, Cassons.
Saffy's family members are fantastically flawed but also creative and loyal; from mother Eve, who forgets things like dinner, and who is overly permissive because she believes her kids "were in every way more talented, intelligent, and wise than she would ever be," to anxious Indigo, who acts recklessly in an effort to face his fears (he wants to be a polar explorer), but calls his sisters his "pack" and pushes his older sister Caddy to pass her exams.
The only character who isn't particularly sympathetic is Bill, the father, who spends his week acting the part of an artist in London, belittling his talented wife who must juggle her work and four children alone at home. But he is shot down at times by his outspoken offspring, and ultimately learns to see his wife's artistic ability.
In the end, this is a funny and tender novel. Readers will fall in love with the Cassons, and be excited to get McKay's other books about the children who live and create in the unkempt Banana House.
From the Book:
She knew quite well what would happen the moment she let Sarah meet her family. She would lose her. Sarah was just the sort of person that Caddy and Indigo and Rose would like. They would make friends immediately. Then Eve would come out of her shed and be sweet and useless and friendly, and she would like Sarah, too. And sooner or later Bill would reappear from London and be efficient and handsome and make excellent jokes. Sarah would be swept away on a wave of Casson charm.
Plot Summary:
Saffy's not quite sure of her place in her chaotic, artistic family. First, she learns that she was adopted (by her mother's twin, making her brother and sisters actually her cousins). Then, her grandfather, with whom she always imagined a special relationship, dies.
When he leaves her a "stone angel" in his will, Saffy and her best friend hatch a sneaky plan to get from England to Italy (Saffy was living there when her mother died and reasons that's where the angel must be). But when Saffy returns back home, she finds it is where she is meant to be after all -- and where her mysterious angel is, too.
Related Books:
Other Book's About This Family
Indigo's Star
Permanent Rose
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Social BehaviorSaffy becomes friends with a girl in a wheelchair, whom her family ignored for years; Saffy's mother allows her children to do dangerous things, like hang out of a window. |
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