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!"
2 comments:
I really enjoyed the first two Incorrigible books and am looking forward to the third. For some reason, I though the series was a trilogy so I was hoping all the unanswered questions would be resolved in the next book. Now knowing that it's not a trilogy, I have to agree with you about readers' impatience getting in the way. I'm an adult and still hate to wait...and a year is a long time between releases (especially for kids). I usually wait until a series is released in full before I start reading it (I would have been a wreck if I had to wait a year in between Hunger Games installments). It would be nice to know how many more books Maryrose Wood plans to include in the series, but I think the stories are so fun that I'll probably keep reading them, as long as someone keeps reminding me when the next book will be released :)
I hear ya! I feel the same way about the Flavia de Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley, but those are at least self-contained mysteries! WIth both series, I somehow end up stumbling upon the release of a new one without being too far behind, so I just trust that will keep happening!
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