It's 1950's London and everything is about to change for Penelope; well, let's hear her tell it herself:
It all started on a perfectly ordinary afternoon in November. Charlotte invited me home to tea with Aunt Clare and Harry, and from that moment on, everything changed. At first I don't think I knew it--after all, when I went to bed that night I was still living with my mother and brother in perpetual chaos in a crumbling estate we couldn't afford to keep, Magna--but the next day, I began to realize that for the first time ever, I had my own life. (from the book jacket for The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice)
From the very beginning of The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, Eva Rice pulls you into the lives of three upper class teenagers in postwar London and this charming book will keep you entertained as you are swept along with their parties, friendships, intrigues, crushes on pop stars, lost loves, found loves--in short, as they grow up and find their own way. Don't be put off by the teenaged characters; you'll love it as an adult for it's ability to convey a time and place as well as the way it will take you back to your own early twenties. Uneven in spots, the characters are nevertheless so well drawn that you will be sorry to leave them at book's end. It's no mistake that Eva Rice is the daughter of lyricist Tim Rice (The Lion King): she's obviously inherited the family gene for entertaining.
Find The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets at the Adrian Public Library.
Find The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets at the Adrian Public Library.
3 comments:
I loved this book! In ways it reminded me of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith--same endearing narrator, same crumbling English Estate, same eccentric family. Both these books are definitely adult books that teens would love. I Capture the Castle was written in the 1940's I think, but it is worth reading today--a classic that is easy to read.
I agree with both books-liked them both. Didn't Dodie Smith also write the original 101 Dalmations? What a wonderful book to read aloud to your school-age kids. I did and it led to a succession of pets named "Cadpig"--the British way of naming the runt of the litter. We had a cat, and predictably, a guinea pig named "Caddie". Good times.
Sounds like a good book. I'll have to give it a try.
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