Emily Neville

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Polly Goodwin

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In the following essay, Polly Goodwin praises Emily Neville's ability to recreate her childhood experiences in the 1920s with vivid storytelling, capturing the charm and nostalgia of a bygone era in her work "Traveler from a Small Kingdom," while making it relatable and enchanting for modern young readers.

The world Emily Cheney knew as a little girl in the 1920s will seem to today's children as foreign to their experience as a fairytale kingdom, as remote as a planet in outer space. But to Emily, the Place was very real—and secure—inhabited exclusively by Cheneys….

[Traveler from a Small Kingdom] is Emily's nostalgic recreation of that life. It moves at a leisurely pace as it tells of games and pranks with cousins, of holiday celebrations, of exploratory walks with [the governess] Mrs. Goodall, of experiments with their hens and pet goats. Gradually it takes Emily beyond her kingdom….

Children love to know what it was like "when you were a little girl." With the storytelling skill and intuition that won her the Newbery award for It's Like This, Cat, Emily Neville makes her childhood and its setting both real and appealing. (p. 4)

Polly Goodwin, in Book World—Chicago Tribune, Part II (© 1968 Postrib Corp.), May 5, 1968.

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