The Willoughbys

I will not be giving this to my grandchildren to read. Today you really should pre-read a book before giving it to a child to read. I did enjoy this author’s other books, but I am an adult. I would not give this authors books to a grade schooler.

I just finished reading this with my children. It's such a delightful story about an old fashioned group of kids and their terrible parents. My kids were laughing with me at the adventures of the Willoughby children. Ms. Lowry uses some great vocabulary words in this story; it was a fun way to introduce some new words to the kids. Definitely, one of my favorites.

In the book The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry we meet some orphans named Tim Barnaby A and B and their sister Jane. They have been abandoned by their cruel parents and left with their nanny. They try hard to fulfill their role as good old fashioned children, following models set for them from A Christmas Carol, Mary Poppins and others. They just want their happy ending but it is unseen if they will ever find it and if their nanny, an abandoned baby, a candy magnate, and his lost son could as well.

I would not recommend this book.

This book just annoyed me. The parents were mean and uncaring. The orphans were not even sad about being orphans in fact they try to become orphans before they were orphans and the parents were trying to make them orphans without having to be held accountable. The oldest is bossy. The nanny is full of nonsense. The wealthy male benefactor is just weird.

I am under the understanding that this book is for children and maybe that is why I did not find this book humorous. It just seemed more and more ridiculous at every page I turned. I know I was a fan of Lemony Snicket and I should be used to this type of writing, BUT this is Lois Lowry who has written some fantastic books that I have recently read. This is NOT the type of book I was expecting. Maybe if you are prepared and you enjoy Lemony Snicket you will greatly enjoy reading this book. It is not the same, but both are full of quirky bittersweet sarcastic stories about orphans. Both use lots of long and complicated words that are explained in a funny manner. So I suppose you could say that they are very similar.

I do not know that I have ever rated a book this low but man I did not like this book at all. The characters seemed unforgivable. Just plain awful to be honest. I did not like one of them not the parents, nor the children, or any of the adults or other characters in this book. I couldn’t find a redeemable quality in any of them. This is a very dark children’s story.

Again, I love Lois Lowry, I loved the Giver and the three accompanying books and I really liked Number the Stars, but this book was just awful. Do not judge the author on this book. I beg of you.

I rate this book a 1 out of 5 stars.

This is a delight. We did not know what to expect with this book. We are familliar with the author, but this is not like other books we have read by her. My kids and I read it aloud and had many giggles. The sentences are complex and really make a child pay attention as the grammar is not typical of today's books. Great read. Cute story. Family favorite now.

When The Willoughbys came out on Netflix, my daughter couldn't get enough. When she realized there was a book, I couldn't say no.
Like most books-movies, there are differences and this book is no exception. It is strange, about parents who love eachother so much that they have no love left for thier own kids. As a result, the kids plan and plot to have a better life. It is definitely a satire and better for older readers (9+).
We thought the book was exciting, funny at times, and at other times downright crazy. But overall, we thought it was a great read!
After, I took the opportunity to have my daughter write a little report on the differences between the book and movie, which she actually enjoyed.

This is Lois Lowry's Lemony-Snickett Edward-Gorey wannabe book, but not as biting as either. Lots of big but meaningful and useful words, most of which are explained in a glossary with more than a touch of wit. She must have had fun writing it, and I had fun reading it.

I have enjoyed other books by Lois Lowry, but some of hers are a little.... "odd." So, I picked this one up with some concerns, especially since I was to be the tie-breaker reader to approve this book for our school library. I can understand why one parent said "no" to the book.... mainly because the parents and the children don't really like each other. There is no hate between, mostly just indifference. The parents are annoyed at having to care for the children, and the children, who consider themselves old-fashioned (and not attached to their "cold" parents), long to be "orphans like children in old-fashioned books." (There are a number of references to classic children's literature.) Therefore, the parents hire a nanny and embark on a trip around the world (to be rid of the children), and the children hope for a "romantic end" to their parents on their adventure. The real story is about the children finding another family (a loving one) to be part of after they are actually orphaned. The glossary and "bibliography" (brief descriptions of the class novels referenced in the story) in the back are quite funny. Actually, the book is a parody of a "classic," but I don't think most children will understand that. Everyone ends up (well, the "good guys" anyway) living happily ever after, of course.

In the end, I finally decided to give it a "yes" vote, but I recommend it for older children (5th-6th grade).

Parent/child and child/parent interaction bothered me. Wanting their parents to go on a dangerous vacation and hoping something would befall them was a little strong...but then so was abandoning the children and even selling the house out from under them...while blistfully enjoying a vacation w/o giving the well-being of their children a second thought. It did, however, have some interesting plot twists that I did not see coming. I guess I expected a different type story from the title.

Funny, weird, and delightful! This book made me laugh. It is a bit dark, though. I HATE the stupid movie on Netflix. It almost made me not want to read the book. I am so glad that I did. It is much better. Promise.

Bought this because of the movie hype. I can say that the two medias are very different. Not too much is kept the same but it makes sense for those to be changed for a movie adaptation. That being saod I really enjoyed the book. It gave me a Matilda vibe. Its not a hard nor long book to read but it was fun. Id reccomend this with or without the movie