The Abominables

I have yet to read a book by Eva Ibbotson that I enjoy. Is it me? It must be me. This book started out great. The narration was fun and quirky. The premise was totally implausible, but I was taken with Agatha and her band of Yetis right from the start.

Agatha, while vacationing in the Himalayas, is kidnapped by a yeti. Instead of freaking out, like I would do, she falls in love with the yeti's children and decides to stay and be their mother. This part of the story is heaven for me. Cute. Fun. Everything I want in a book. Then one of the yeti kids leaves tracks in the snow, which leads to a boy named Con finding them. Agatha decides they are no longer safe from tourists and she elicits Con's help to get them to her home in England. She show more can’t go because she is too old. Without Agatha the story loses its way. The narration isn't quite as interesting. The details are a bit lacking. In short, it gets boring.

If only the yetis had stayed put… show less

What a great last book! Ibbotson at her best. I had a good laugh at almost every single page. I got this book in a giveaway, and I feel like a lucky winner. I don't think the children for whom the book is written will understand every single one of the allusions to environmental politics, the "reincarnation" of Lady Agatha, etc., but they will definitely have fun and learn inthe process. I am going to put the book in the school library where I work.

I get the impression that this was not quite ready for publication. In fact, if I'd known it was published posthumously when I spotted it at the library, I would not have chosen it. It's not terrible, but it's rough and not up to par.... Still, it's easy enough to forgive the overly earnest messages, forgive the fantastic implausibilities, and enjoy the yetis, the children, and the adventures. And Perry, Hubert, Aggie, and the rest.

A sweet story about sweet yetis brought up by the young daughter of a Victorian botanist who was collecting rare plants in the Himalayas. Lady Agatha taught them to be well-mannered and thoughtful. It paid off when, fleeing tourists, they had an adventurous journey from the Himalayas to her manor home in England. Did you know the reason a yeti hasn't been discovered is because their feet are on backwards? Their footsteps take the tracker in the opposite direction.

Eva Ibbotson, with her idiosyncratic style of humor, centers her story The Abominables around a family of abominable snowmen--trained in English manners--who migrate to England, while hiding in a refrigerated truck. That's your plot synopsis. Let your imagination run wild--Eva will surprise you. Highly entertaining for all ages, but only if you have a sense of humor.

I received The Abonimables at BEA 2013 and I am sad to say that many of the books I received are still in my TBR pile – I went a bit overboard… Anywho, this book was very cute. I had not heard of Eva Ibbotson before this book, but she was a beautiful writer of whimsy. She took a surreal topic and although far-fetched made it seem possible. In the book we meet Lady Agatha, a young girl kidnapped by a yeti. She lives with them and raises the children, teaches them all sorts of things, and when marketing and development start to take over their homestead she decides that they should move to her old home in England, the Farley Towers.

The book is filled with illustrations and because I only had an ARC some were even just the rough show more sketches, I am told that the released book has these in full color and I bet that they are adorable. I pictures were a wonderful addition to the story – they really captured what I was seeing in my head as I was reading the tale and those types of images are always the best.

Ibbotson’s tale is a fun-filled adventure for young readers with learning embedded throughout on their journey from the Himalayas to England. This was a very easy read and I think both boys and girls will enjoy it. Amulet markets it for ages 8-12 but if read a loud I think younger audiences can enjoy as well. show less

Another highly enjoyable book by Eva Ibbotson. A family of Yetis needs a mother, so the father takes a young girl, named Lady Agatha, from her tent. When she sees how much she's needed, she happily settles in with them and teaches them all sorts of things, most notably manners and English. Long story short, she eventually convinces two children to take them to her family's estate in England because she is too old to care for them. The trip to England and what awaits them is entertaining. Ibbotson also slips in a few moral issues in her light manner.