Book of the Week: The Willoughbys

The tag along the bottom of the front cover—A Novel Nefariously Written & Ignominiously Illustrated by the Author—piqued my curiosity.  I was hooked by the end of the first chapter. The discussion therein of what to name a baby found on the Willoughby’s front porch sealed the deal. The baby is named Ruth because, as the oldest Willoughby child notes, they “are the ruthless Willoughbys.”

Hand this hilarious book about four children trying desperately to become orphans—while at the same time their parents try desperately to become childless—to fans of Lemony Snicket.

Author Lois Lowry pokes fun at various conventions found in orphan-heavy children’s books, even providing a bibliography at book’s end with amusing annotations for a handful of such books. Her Glossary is also not to be missed for those seeking to suck every last morsel of humor from this book. The nanny she has conjured up is a delight; instead of the horrid, mean type the Willoughby parents were seeking, this nanny is kind and an excellent cook to boot. Naturally, Lowry uses the nanny to take aim at yet another famous character: Mary Poppins. When asked if she is like the sugar- and song-dispensing caregiver, Nanny sniffs back, “Not one bit like that fly-by-night woman. It almost gives me diabetes just to think of her: all those disgusting spoonfuls of sugar! None of that for me.”