The Unseen Guest

Continuing to delight. And also, honestly, a race with giant wolves and a governess on an ostrich -- what a priceless visual. Also, Madame Ionesco's salty "don't worry about it, honey"s and "see you later wolf-babies" are just riotously funny.

The audio book version of it is superb, with just the right mix of pragmatic governess voice and assorted delightful animal noises. Hilarious, over the top, and full of sound advice.

Description: Of especially naughty children it is sometimes said, "They must have been raised by wolves."

The Incorrigible children actually were.

Since returning from London, the three Incorrigible children and their plucky governess, Miss Penelope Lumley, have been exceedingly busy. Despite their wolfish upbringing, the children have taken up bird-watching, with no unfortunate consequences—yet. And a perplexing gift raises hard questions about how Penelope came to be left at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females and why her parents never bothered to return for her.

But hers is not the only family mystery to solve. When Lord Fredrick's long-absent mother arrives with the noted explorer Admiral Faucet, gruesome secrets tumble out show more of the Ashton family tree. And when the admiral's prized racing ostrich gets loose in the forest, it will take all the Incorrigibles' skills to find her.

The hunt for the runaway ostrich is on. But Penelope is worried. Once back in the wild, will the children forget about books and poetry and go back to their howling, wolfish ways? What if they never want to come back to Ashton Place at all?

Thoughts: This episode in the tale of the Incorrigibles and Ms. Penelope Lumley was delightful, but not perfect. Finally, we get to see the Incorrigibles in the wild and uncover a whole pack (hahaha) of clues about their lives prior to Ashton place. And Penelope finally starts to really break out of just being a Swanborne girl and wonderful governess and starts to become a resourceful, interesting, determined young lady with the gumption to make things happen as she believes they should. What pluck!

And my word, could there be any more intrigue going on? More twisted clues that are near impossible to clearly unravel? I doubt it, but since the next book is called The Interrupted Tale I have a bit of an idea that I will be proved wrong.

My only real complaint is that I would have liked the middle bit in the forest to have been longer and the intrigue at the end to have been a bit shorter. Mostly because the forest was just so DAMN INTERESTING! Can't wait for my library to get the next one. If it doesn't come in soon I may say waiting be damned and just buy it. ;)

Rating: 4.08

Liked: 4
Plot: 4
Characterization: 4
Writing: 4
Audio: 4.5

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What is it about these books? I can't stop reading them. This one was another adventure in the lives of Miss Penelope Lumley and the Incorrigible children - and a ridiculously far-fetched one, in my opinion. Certain aspects/plot points were downright silly and unbelievable, well beyond the normal unbelievability level you normally find in this series. And as with the previous two entries, answers are alluded to but rarely (if ever) given. To the point that as I was nearing the end of this one, I thought, THAT'S IT, I'm done, if I don't find out SOMETHING - I refuse to go any further with this series. And yet, I finished the last page and immediately went in search of the next.
They're funny, for one thing. And full of generally good show more attitudes toward living. The narrative asides I could do with less of - even if I were a child reading this book instead of an adult, I don't think I'd want quite such an extensive lesson on synonyms.
But, I don't know. I just love these books. Dammit. show less

The Ashtons, Incorrigibles, and Penelope have been back from London for only a few days when Lord Frederick's mother shows up, with a new boyfriend in tow. The boyfriend is obsessed with his latest money-making scheme, racing ostriches, but he seems a bit too interested in the children for Penelope's taste.

Well, not very many answers here either. And also more questions. Reading these books is like watching an episode of Lost: each book gives you 1 kind-of-answer and 5 huge new questions. But they're still really entertaining. Penelope is a perfect unexpected heroine, and the villains are never too villain-y, nor not villain-y enough. The children are adorable, and all of the supporting characters are excellent.

The Unseen Guest is another exciting installment of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, continuing the mysteries and tone of the previous two books. This is not a volume to pick up cold - you will need to read at least the second book to properly understand many of the mysteries and solutions and more mysteries that appear in this one.

If you are skilled at reading between the lines, you might be able to figure out some of the answers that our plucky heroine Penelope Lumley is trying to find, but be prepared to be disappointed: for as often as I had an "aha!" moment, I was perplexed by others. Of course, while there are several questions that weave through the plots of the Incorrigible Children series, each book has its own show more distinct adventurous plot that leaves Miss Lumley out of her element and the Incorrigible siblings having a grand time.

Some of the themes to this third book made me think that it would be the last of the series, except for maybe an epilogue happy-ever-after, but of course just as everything might be resolved, we're left with even more questions, as I've mentioned several times already. Honestly, if I don't hear that the fourth book is forthcoming in due time, I shall likely impersonate Lady Constance with a stomping of the foot and petulant pout. At any rate, the themes are "growing up" and "long-lost loved ones' return". Regarding the first theme, not only is 15-year-old Penelope starting to become aware of her first falling-in-love, but the three children are outgrowing their clothes, the boys have been invited to Lord Fredrick's study after dinner like adults, and they're all welcomed out of the nursery. Regarding the second theme, I probably shouldn't talk about it much unless I want to spoil everyone reading this, but it suffices to say that it is a common theme in the book.

As always, there is a lot of fun with the narrative in a not-quite-didactic way - elks, thing that can be spelled "POE" (and similar acronyms), birds, and synonyms are all played with in different ways. The in-universe series Giddy-Yap, Rainbow is also used to contrast with the book we're reading, and even serves to illustrate some of the ways that Penelope is growing up.

While this book did seem to be a bit long feeling, and I kept flipping to the back to see how much farther I had to go, I think it was more because I was dying to know the answer to all the secrets and mysteries, and less because I was bored (though sometimes wanting to get to the end because it's taking too long, and wanting to get to the end because you're dying to see the solution to a mystery are very similar feelings).

I will continue to recommend this series to anyone I think might enjoy it, especially with the fantastic illustrations, and I'm very much looking forward to the next installment. show less

This is the third book in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, a sort of satire about a young governess taking care of three children who were literally raised by wolves. I love the writing style and humour of these books, and the illustrations are wonderful. If you've been enjoying the series so far, you'll probably want to continue on. If you haven't read the earlier books, I'd recommend starting at the beginning, though I've heard that the second one at least could still be enjoyed as a stand-alone.

The only complaint I have about the series is that the underlying mystery keeps getting more and more complex without being resolved. We don't know who left the children in the woods, or what happened to Penelope's parents, or show more basically anything about how the current situation came about. I was particularly disappointed about the lack of progress in the second book, and that kept me from fully enjoying this third one: rather than tearing through in my eagerness to find out what would happen, I found myself just bracing for another disappointment. In the end, that may have been for the best because I didn't come away from the book unpleasantly surprised, but it didn't make for the ideal reading experience either.

Basically, the plot continues to thicken in this book; we get some tantalizing hints about various aspects of the mystery, and learn some very interesting new things. We still don't get to see how everything fits together, though, and I just hope that the ultimate resolution will tie it all together satisfactorily. I almost think that I'll enjoy the books more when I can reread them after the whole series is done, and just focus on the fun playful tone without worrying about whether the series as a whole is going to come together properly in the end.

Other than that, though, I'm very happy with this installment. It introduces some fun new characters, and Penelope also experiences a bit of character development as she tries to come to terms with growing up and realizes, for example, that her favourite childhood books aren't quite as exciting as she used to think. I'm hoping that future books will show the Incorrigibles developing a bit more too; they've seemed pretty static ever since the original great strides that Penelope made with them in the first book.

On the whole, I'd recommend this book and this series. I think it's one of the few children's (not YA) series that I can still enjoy thoroughly as an adult. I just wish I weren't so nervous about whether the overall resolution will be satisfactory or not, but maybe that's just a sign of how much I care about the books. show less

I enjoyed this one more than I did the second in the series, and it's rekindled my interest in reading the fourth (which will hopefully stay smoldering until that book comes out (my interest, not the book. I am opposed to book-burning of any kind)).

I really love the way Wood uses puns and introduces inside jokes into the story that readers can look out for along the way. I especially appreciated the pangs with which Penelope experiences the awareness that comes with growing up and replacing childish tastes with more grown-up ones. Her emotions as Wood portrays them seem real and familiar to me. The plot is convoluted and the reveals parceled out with maddening slowness, but my kids and I still find these books a pleasure to listen show more to.

Oh, and that reminds me: five stars all the way to Katherine Kellgren, who reads the books on the audio editions we get from the library. She is absolutely fantastic. show less