After the disastrous trip to London, the three Incorrigible children—Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia—are back at Ashton Place with their trusted and beloved governess, Penelope Lumley. Their wolf side has been further tamed, and they are working hard on their lessons—currently, studying birds outside the nursery window. All is running fairly smoothly until Lord Frederick's mother, the Widow Ashton, shows up with a suitor, the adventurous Admiral Faucet, and his ostrich that has suddenly flown the coop. Faucet enlists the help of the Incorrigibles and their superb tracking skills for a trip into the woods to find Bertha the ostrich. Naturally, things don't go as planned, and chaos ensues as Miss Lumley fears the Incorrigibles will abandon the nursery for their home in the wild.
Like the previous two Incorrigible titles, the third brings up many more questions on the past of both the Incorrigibles and their governess. But this time, we learn that Lord Frederick Ashton and his family may also play a role. Like why does Lord Frederick have itching fits around a full moon? And did his father really die a tragic, gruesome death in a tar pit?
For a children's series, let me tell you...I certainly cannot figure out the mystery at all. Throughout the series, nothing is answered and more questions are asked, leaving me curious as to just how long Wood plans to drag this series out! These books are, without a doubt, loads of fun, but waiting a year for the next installment tests my (extreme lack of) patience! This is not a series of self-contained stories, as many children's series are—episodic but featuring the same characters. This is like getting through a season of a television show where you're constantly wondering what happens next. I think this series will be great for middle grade kids when all the books are released and they can absorb one after the other, but right now, I fear children would either forget the story from one book to the next or outgrow the reading level by the time the next one is released. However, I have to do a booktalk for one of my library school classes in two weeks, and I'm planning on doing it on the Incorrigibles.
And so I sit here and wait, thinking, "NEXT, PLEASE!"
