Dec 24, 2009
When Honor Arundel died earlier this year we lost an author who has contributed much for the older girl to read and enjoy. Her books will not win any of the great literary prizes of the children's book world, but they do deserve mention for their humanity and popularity. The ones for older girls are sensitive; in them ordinary girls can associate with the heroines in the books, for they are no artificial paper-board characters but full of feeling and the quixotic nature of the average teenager.
The High House was the first and I thought one of the best of the novels…. The second two books [in the Emma series] do not seem to have the deep sensitivity of the first and particularly in Emma's Island, I found the diversification of the characters at times a little confusing. (pp. 367-68)
The author is less assured over her handling of the delicate situation in The Longest Weekend. Eileen and her three year old illegitimate...
[The entire page is 341 words long]
©2000-2009
Enotes.com Inc.
All Rights Reserved