Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J Fic McKay, H. 2008 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | J FICTION MCKAY | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Rose knows that nothing stays the same forever.
Still, it's hard to watch her sisters and brother growing up and moving so far ahead of her. Caddy is back, but she's not living at home. And worse -- she's broken up with Darling Michael. Saffy and Indigo are so busy, they are seldom home. With her father in London and her mother painting in the shed, Rose is often alone in the house.
Maybe that's why she agrees to her new friend Molly's crazy scheme. At least it seems crazy when Rose finds herself locked in the zoo at night with a roaring tiger. Maybe she should have been paying more attention to what Molly was saying. But on that spooky night, Rose finds out a secret that just might change everything -- and help bring her family and friends together and new life to their old house.
Hilary McKay infuses her charming characters with much love and laughter in this final visit with the delightfully daffy Casson family.
Author Notes
Hilary McKay is the award-winning author of The Time of Green Magic (which received five starred reviews), The Skylarks' War (which was a Boston Globe Best Book and received three starred reviews), Binny Bewitched (which was a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and received two starred reviews), Binny in Secret (which received three starred reviews), Binny for Short (which received four starred reviews), and six novels about the Casson family: Saffy's Angel , Indigo's Star , Permanent Rose , Caddy Ever After , Forever Rose , and Caddy's World . She is also the author of The Swallows' Flight , Rosa by Starlight , and Wishing for Tomorrow , the sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess . Hilary lives with her family in Derbyshire, England. Visit her at HilaryMcKay.co.uk.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-7-This final installment in the Casson family saga finds 11-year-old Rose feeling deserted and confused. Saffy and Indigo are busy with their teenage pursuits, Caddy has been missing for nearly a year since her almost-wedding to not-Michael in Caddy Ever After (S & S, 2006), Mummy is spending all her time in her artist's shed to avoid spreading germs from a bad case of bronchitis, and Daddy Bill is still living in London, finding the peace and quiet he can't get at home. To make matters worse, Rose does not like Mr. Spencer, "the new irritated teacher of class 6." She is having a difficult time with reading, is deeply disappointed when no one has time to shop for a Christmas tree, and is affronted by the ubiquitous presence of Indigo's displaced friend, David, and his problematic drum set. However, her spunky friend Kiran is unfailingly loyal and supportive, and, when their schoolmate Molly proposes an extension of their class trip to the zoo into a secret overnight stay, the two agree to go along. What results from this mischievous, if dangerous, escapade are some surprising resolutions to Rose's disenchantment with school and home, and even a new configuration of the family. McKay is at the top of her game with this poignant, hilarious account, narrated in diary form by irrepressible, artistic Rose. Readers will empathize with her frustrations, secretly admire her and Kiran's sassiness, and cheer as everything falls nicely, and unexpectedly, into place.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The fifth--and, sadly, final--volume about the Casson family, Brits like the author, is the best of them all, a jewel of a domestic comedy. Rose, the youngest, is now 11 and occupies an as yet uncharted zone between daft and brilliant. Writing in a diary (she cheerfully ignores the printed dates and supplies her own), she copes with her separated but still doting parents, her talented siblings and the assorted people they collect (where is Caddy, the oldest sister, when she periodically phones Rose? And what is to be done with David, her brother's lummox of a friend who has been kicked out by his mother and has no place to put his drum set?). Then there's Rose's friend Molly, with her nutty plan to hide out overnight at the zoo in the arctic foxes' shelter, a scheme Rose will go along with only because she's certain it will fail. McKay is an expert at twinning the point of view: she lets readers see Rose's logic, but her timing calls forth every bit of the situational humor. The ending ties all the ends together--some may say too neatly, but fans will find the wrapup utterly satisfying. Ages 10-14. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate, Middle School) Anyone who feared that the Casson family might lose their verve in this, the fifth of the series, can rest easy. Eleven-year-old Rose, the youngest, the artist, the reluctant reader, the most off-center member of this off-center family, is the emotional heart of the novel as she faces the classic youngest-child dilemma of older siblings growing up and pulling away. "They are turning into the sort of people I used to call Grown Up and I cannot stop them, although I would if I could. I would slow them down, anyway. Sometimes I want to shout, 'Wait for me! Wait for me!'" Life in the Casson household never stays tidy, and the hectic but beautifully orchestrated plot includes spillover issues from the previous books such as the fate of ex-bully David and the complicated love life of eldest sister Caddy. Introduced in this novel are new messy relationships, triumphs, and pleasures, and two startling surprises. Surprise number one is that Bill, the largely absent Casson father, moves home again. Surprise number two (which is brilliant) presents Rose, and readers, with the joyous flip side of older siblings who leave and make their own lives. With this, the final volume of the Casson family saga, McKay delights us once again with her hilarious disaster scenes, her metafictional cheek ("in fairy stories there are hardly any of those half-good half-bad people who crop up so constantly in real life and are so difficult to believe in"), and her moving and entirely unsentimental celebration of the virtue of kindness. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The utterly beguiling tale of four children named for paint colors and their artist parents concludes in the most engaging way possible one December--all told in 11-year-old Permanent Rose's distinctive voice. The oldest, Caddy, only calls home occasionally, for reasons unknown. Brother Indigo's friend David moves his entire drum kit into the Cassons' blissfully chaotic home. Saffy escapes briefly to her friend Sarah's, whose Goth demeanor shines forth from her wheelchair. It is left to Rose to worry about the presents, the tree, her evil teacher Mr. Spencer, Class 1's Christmas pageant and her best friends Molly and Kiran's secret plans for the holiday trip to the zoo. Rosy Pose is preternaturally perspicacious, saying luminous things about the making of art (Rose is very much an artist), the joys of reading (Rose finally Gets It, via The Once and Future King) and the ways families work ("Mummy lives in the [painting] shed, Daddy appears and disappears like the moon..."). It ends in a burst of Christmas happiness, with one terribly flawed character finding some redemption at last. Simply lovely. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
McKay concludes her series of books about the British Casson family, first met in Saffy's Angel (2002), with a title that's just as wild and endearing as its characters. As usual, chaos reigns in the artistic Casson household: David, a young family friend, has run away from home and lodged himself (and his drum set) in the Casson's living room. The children's mother, becomes ill, prompting Daddy's return from London, where he was living with a girlfriend. And oldest sibling Caddie, missing since she fled her own wedding, resurfaces with an astonishing surprise. In a precocious and hilarious style that often reads like free-form poetry in its perfectly timed line breaks, narrator Rose describes these larger dramas as well as her own private triumphs: learning to love reading, being a loyal friend, and herding her rubbish family toward a joyous conclusion. Readers meeting the Cassons for the first time will be lost, but those who know the characters will rejoice in this final sly, celebratory view of a messy, imperfect, and fiercely loving family.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2008 Booklist