Love Among the Walnuts: or, How I Saved My Family from Being Poisoned (1998)

Love among the Walnuts is a charming, amusing story, if not profound. It's shelved as a young adult novel in my library, and I loved it in high school, though I'm not quite as enthusiastic now. However, it does have fun characters, and while the plot isn't original, the highjinks are a little different. And like most non-drama stories taking place near a "loony bin" it's the loonies who really make the story. ( )

This was another one of my recent reads that had me underwhelmed. I wasn't a fan of the writing to begin with--I felt that it was trying much too hard to be whimsical and this was overly obvious. It gets better as the plot progresses, but the plot is pretty weak, predictable, and boring. I felt like it was in great need of plot twists and funny situations, instead of just ironically "funny" narration. Now, don't get me wrong, some of the whimsy was hilarious. The character's names were clever and really fun to track. I just don't know, though. If you're in the mood for whimsy, I would strongly recommend Ferris's other books, Once Upon A Marigold and Twice Upon a Marigold. This was more morbid, darker humor, reminding me a times of Pushing Daisies (but really not as funny). I just kept trying to look past the plot, theorizing that there'd be a twist in relation to the characters, the location, the mystery, whatever, and nothing really surfaced. I did enjoy watching the relationship between Sandy and Sunnie progress, but even that felt drastically drawn out (but maybe that's what made it so cute!). All in all, not the greatest book, but there are definitely worse.

Rating: 3/5 ( )

Pretty good, kinda weird. Great characters and kooky and interesting plot lines. I enjoyed it while I was reading but it wasn't terribly compelling. Still, a nice little mindless break from some of the heavier reading I've been doing otherwise. ( )

I picked this up when my daughter had to read it for school, and what a pleasant surprise! It's one of the most charming books I've ever read.

A fantasy/fairy tale of a family's utopia being threatened by jealous and evil brothers. When 3 of the family members and a chicken fall into a coma it is up to Sandy, the inmates at the local asylum and a nurse to save his family. ( )