This Casson family story is more like four separate – or five? – stories, because Rose and Indigo and Saffy and Caddy each have a go, and then it turns ot that their separate tales belong together after all. It’s almost as though Hilary McKay is serving up a Casson smörgåsbord (my sincere apologies for using a description like that for the wonderful Cassons. I don’t know what’s got into me).
As always with Hilary this is a most marvellous book, and one that instantly made me feel better when I read it last week. Why am I not a Casson? Although this time round I thought I’d like to be Sarah’s mother. How much better to be kind and lovely to the neighbourhood children, than to scare them away.
Rose has an accident at school, and is busy painting the night sky, without stars. Indigo runs the school disco and pairs people off, with some success. Saffy is paired off, and also falls out a little with best friend Sarah, who wants to be stabbed to make sure she’s properly dead. (She’s not.)
And then we have Caddy, who falls in love (again) and wants to get married. But what about her last boyfriend?
So much to feel good about, in a relatively short volume. But there is one more to go (so ‘plenty’ of time for more Casson writing, Hilary!) and with my new policy I will read it sooner rather than later.
Thank you.
This is where we could both bow and thank each other in perpetuity. Like the Marx Sisters, maybe.
Love these books…going to tweet this link as Hilary is too modest…
It’s a sign of a good author, this modesty business.