The Diamond in the Window

This one is the best of the first three in the series. My kids liked it too. Some of it is dated (exoticism of Krishna, for example, and characterization of the villain is racist) but the essential elements still work. Being trapped in a seashell? Hunting for treasure? Transcendentalism? Yes!

Eleanor and Eddy are determined to find the children who disappeared from their house years ago, no matter how difficult or dangerous. In Ned and Nora's old room at the top of the house, they find verses scratched on the window by Prince Krishna before he, too, was gone. Now the verses become clues, and before long Eleanor and Eddy find themselves in the middle of a terrifying adventure. Always, Ned and Nora are just one step ahead. Will Eleanor and Eddy be able to free the lost children and the prince - or will they too become trapped in the nightmare?

The sexism and other out-dated perspectives detracted somewhat from my enjoyment of the story, but it was written long time ago (in the year of my birth!) and is actually reminiscent of an even earlier time. It reminds me of Nesbit and Eager, and the best bits especially of the tart & mysterious bits of Mary Poppins. The time period is a hundred years" after the Transcendentalists were active (pretty vague) and the ages of the children are similarly vague: Edward could be as young as seven, Eleanor as old as 13, and they could be anywhere between 1 and 6 years apart (I chose to think of them as 8 and 11).

The philosophy is an important part of the magical quest. Parents are dead. Aunt Lily is active in the church and sings hymns at home show more sometimes, but isn't at all stuffy. Uncle Freddy (aunt's older brother) has Thoreau and Emerson memorized and is very in tune with Nature. Reincarnation is implied as a real thing, and the basic 'magic' underpinning the adventure seems simple, more secular than specific to any formal mythology.

And my comments so far make the book seem confused, messy, random. It's not. It may seem so if read too fast: I had to keep reminding myself to slow down, to think about what I was reading, to pay attention to the specific themes and language and metaphors... none of that is difficult but it does require one to tear oneself away from the headlong excitement of the quest long enough to absorb them. Maybe the intended audience, a younger or busier reader than I, would naturally read more slowly and/or with more interruptions, and so would find those deeper riches more accessible? A reread would be good, too... and I know that this is the kind of book that I might have reread many times when I was a child.

I will save this book and maybe reread it myself. One of the sequels, The Fledgling, is a Newbery Honor. so I will be reading that with the GR group. Another, The Time Bike, is widely avl in CLAN, so I'll read that then, too. I won't fret, at this time, to get the other sequels; after all, the next, The Swing in the Summerhouse, sounds almost more like a rehash of this than something fresh and special." show less

Delightful story of how two children in trouble find a riddle and attempt to solve it, no matter what the cost. Throw in a somewhat addled but lovable uncle who quotes the Transcendentalists by the yard, a hard-working and sad aunt, some vanished relatives and you have an engaging yarn indeed.

I think I would have liked this much better had I read it as a kid. I enjoyed the historical setting and the wealth of quotes. There are lots of truly funny lines here. The characters are all quite likable, except for the villains of the piece. The dream sequences are otherworldly and perfectly "dreamy" and are perhaps stronger than the straightforward parts of the narrative.

You may not have heard of The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton. I recently bought a used paperback on Amazon , but the first edition to the left (1962) is the one that caught my attention when I pulled it from the shelf at the library when I was about 12. It had a profound influence on my imagination as a child.

Eddy and Eleanor lived in a cool old house in Concord, MA. Their family was a bit odd. One day they notice the diamond shaped attic window and realized they’d never been up there so off they go. Weirder than their family is the scattered toys around the room and empty beds as if two children had been there. Their aunt tells them her brother and sister, Ned and Nora, had vanished from the room and no trace was ever found. show more Eddy and Eleanor move into the attic to try and solve the mystery and start to have shared dreams in which they see Ned and Nora. Did I say there was magic and treasure?

I loved this book and never realized, aside from being an awesome story, it was about Transcendentalism. Who knew? I think it subconsciously opened my mind to other possibilities for the unexplained as ever since then I’ve loved mysteries, ghosts and the like. I never knew there are more in the series so I will have to try and get copies of those.

It made my list of top five all time favorite books. http://historysleuth.org/2013/03/childhood-books-shape-your-life/ show less

"The Diamond in the Window" and its sequel, "The Swing in the Summerhouse," were among the most memorable books of my childhood. Jane Langton, who also wrote the Homer Kelly mysteries, weaves references to transcendentalism into just about all her writing. "The Diamond in the Window" sends siblings Eleanor and Eddie on a series of intriguing, dream-like adventures that take on an increasingly menacing tone as something clearly goes wrong. Compelling, exciting, different.

When I was a child, this was my favorite book for the longest time.

This book blends mystery, fantasy, and interesting tidbits of (suprisingly) the transcedentalist thinkers, Thoreau and Emerson.

As a children's book - it is an easy read. As a story, it is both charming and entertaining. If you have a young girl or boy to buy a "reading" type present for - I recommend this book!