Greenglass housetohome
Greenglass House is a winter book It makes me think about cozy blankets and hot chocolate and snow days very much like The Dark is Rising does to the extent that when I snapped out of my reading haze I was surprised to realize it was still summer and there wasn t snow on the ground So setting and atmosphere That s the first distinguished aspect of the novel In case the word distinguished makes you think of the Newbery well yes Someone give this book a medal please Greenglass House isn t only about atmosphere Its primary goal is to tell a great story and so it s got a fabulous mystery too tied up in Milo s family and the inn that s the family business and the smugglers who are the primary guests It s an intriguing blend of old and new elements smugglers and ships and creaking train cars lanterns and backup generators and role playing games and a timeless bit of secrecy and petty thievery The book is clearly inspired by books that preceded it and yet it s also its own beast its own unique reading adventure And it is an adventure It s a perfectly balanced compulsively readable wonderful adventure with an independent child protagonist who never strains plausibility Which brings me to the spoiler I want to discuss and this is a big spoiler so read the book and then come talk to me about this It s impossible to read Greenglass House and not draw some sort of comparison to We Were Liars since both books have ghost twists And yet drawing that comparison leads me to immediately contrast the two too We Were Liars is an overly self aware ham fisted attempt to talk about privilege in a way that ultimately failed for me To its detriment We Were Liars is about the twist in a way that sinks the story under its weight Greenglass House is about family and winter and adventure so I didn t see the twist coming I probably should have because Meddy only interacts with Milo the way the ghosts only interact with Cady and yet Greenglass House is subtle in a way We Were Liars can only dream of being In a way Greenglass House is a bustling exciting masterpiece of misdirection except that makes it sound like the book exists primarily to distract you from the twist In fact its genius lies in the way it isn t about misdirection The entire story is important It doesn t built to a twist the twist is just another facet of the story Greenglass House is really about great storytelling And it s spectacularly successful at that I do want to point out that there are certain inconsistencies from chapter to chapter flames blown out twice hats removed twice which ordinarily would bother me a lot And it s not that they don t bother me it s just that the novel is so good at what it does that I can look away from the inconsistencies Especially when there are lines like this Nobody said it had to be a story with an ending all neatly tied up like some ridiculous fairy tale This story s true and true stories don t have endings because things just keep going. Greenglass house book review I haven t finished reading the Newbery manual so I can t make a case for a medal armed with all the criteria but the medal should honor great stories And this is a great one 0544052706 What a lovely lovely book All my life I have adored books about huge houses full of secrets and this one adds smugglers and mystery and a search and a delightfully spiky but tender friendship between a couple of lonely kids full of questions and longings Their problems are very different but each does his or her best for the other and they make a terrific sleuth team I loved the central family indeed what the book had to say about families. Przygoda w greenglass house tom 1 I loved the peculiar characters each of whom developed over the course of the book and then there was the breathtaking twist I hate to say lest I tread into spoiler territory but this was such a satisfying read 0544052706 I wish Greenglass House was a real place 0544052706 During the Christmas holidays Milo hopes to be spending some time alone with his parents who run a guest house mainly used by the smuggling community of Nagspeak With only days to go before Christmas the guest house fills with guests all with their story to tell When Milo makes friends with the cook s daughter they soon become involved in a role play game that seeks to find out the mysteries and thefts that involve the guests and the history of the house and the past and present occupants. Greenglass house book 3 We loved the descriptions of the history around the house the hiding places and life living in the guest house We liked the way the stories of the guests tied in together and how the book Milo was reading echoed the events and stories which blended with the plot of the story We appreciated the child characters imaginative play I imagine readers into role play games would really enjoy this element of the book. Greenglass houseoftoners Minor downsides for me was that the book seemed very long perhaps it felt that way because the chapters were quite long I felt there were too many mentions of drinking hot chocolate we began to laugh it happened so much and the word kiddo sounded awful to our UK ears We enjoyed the twist towards the end we didn t see that coming An enjoyable whodunit that kept us guessing until the end 0544052706 4. Green glass value 5 stars such a perfect magical read for the holidays this was hot chocolate with a drizzle of a cozy mystery a snowy xmas setting a group of jolly merry characters with a bit of a bittersweet sentimental feeling also the authors note was precious 3 0544052706 Kate is the author of THE THIEF KNOT GREENGLASS HOUSE GHOSTS OF GREENGLASS HOUSE BLUECROWNE THE LEFT HANDED FATE THE BONESHAKER THE BROKEN LANDS THE KAIROS MECHANISM and the forthcoming THE RACONTEURS COMMONPLACE BOOK February 2021 Originally from Annapolis MD Kate now lives in Brooklyn NY with her husband Nathan and son Griffin and their dogs Ed and Sprocket She has written for stage and screen and is a frequent travel columnist for the Nagspeake Board of Tourism and Culture site_link www. Greenglass House epub.pub com Kate is the author of THE THIEF KNOT GREENGLASS HOUSE GHOSTS OF GREENGLASS HOUSE BLUECROWNE THE LEFT HANDED FATE THE BONESHAKER THE BROKEN LANDS THE KAIROS MECHANISM and the forthcoming THE RACONTEUR S COMMONPLACE BOOK February 2021 Originally from Annapolis MD Kate now lives in Brooklyn NY with her husband Nathan and son Griffin and their dogs Ed and Sprocket She has written for stage and screen and is a frequent travel columnist for the Nagspeake Board of Tourism and Culture site_link www. Greenglass house bookpedia com site_link It s wintertime at Greenglass House The creaky smuggler s inn is always quiet during this season and twelve year old Milo the innkeepers adopted son plans to spend his holidays relaxing But on the first icy night of vacation out of nowhere the guest bell rings Then rings again And again Soon Milo s home is bursting with odd secretive guests each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house As objects go missing and tempers flare Milo and Meddy the cook s daughter must decipher clues and untangle the web of deepening mysteries to discover the truth about Greenglass House and themselves Greenglass House Greenglass House 1 There was never any question in my mind that this would turn out to be a five star review once I started reading at any rate It s not that the book is atmospheric It is and strongly so And it s not that the characters are immediately and intensely engaging They are and without stretching or warping And it s not the flirtation with archetype pastiche and homage in the setup with smugglers customs agents and a company town Though it does a fantastic job of both presenting them and reigning them in to a story you can nevertheless lose yourself in. Greenglass house bookpedia No the power for me of this book is Milo and his parents Their shared love and openheartedness show clearly on every page but positively shine in Milo s interactions with the guests He resents their intrusion on his vacation but he s still kind and giving while still remaining a believably twelve year old kid I loved his flourishing as Meddy encourages him to stretch with their roleplaying game I loved how he experimented safely with identity and capability and story And I loved how his parents supported and trusted him in his exploration and investigations. Greenglass house book 3 But the book stuck the needle at the end of its five stars with Milo s haltingly conceived Christmas gifts The beauty of those moments was powerful and moving and I m tearing up again just remembering them They were idealistic as from a kid thoughtful as befits an emerging adult brave as from a truly open heart and humble as from someone learning his place in his world Those moments touched me and not least in Milo s parents calm stolid support. Greenglass housetohome Add in a handful of laugh out loud moments and you have a book I m sure I ll be thinking about at odd moments for the next months This was truly a fantastic read entertaining touching and valued I m thinking our holiday budget might just extend to picking up a copy of our very own as this one came from the local library 0544052706 Finished the book a few minutes ago It was near perfect It rivalled the best books I ve ever read I daresay that Greenglass House is better than most Harry Potter books It was a wonderful read What is funny is that I am even now lacking words to praise this magical book. Greenglass houseviewonline jackson I cannot sit still writing this review Saying this book is grimdark would not be true but even if it were to be so it is so much than that This book is a historical fiction a Fantasy a book about riddles and mysteries a book about magic a book about loneliness a book about Christmas and friendship and kinship. Greenglass house pic I now realise why I stopped writing longer reviews at various points on this site It is because at these points a few monumentally superb books came along and sapped my synapses ability to be teeming with ideas to share I will try to be verbose just a while before contemplating the sequel which might be just equal in terms of Epicurean currencies to its predecessor. Greenglass houseviewonline jackson I have also to deal with the sneaky suspicion that the book affected me in this way and placing me in a crowd of minority It seems like this book affected me strongly because it was compatible with me There is no Greenglass. Greenglass house mr vinge The book is set in the real world but with magic just round the corner It reminds me of witches and wizards forgetting their spells of Rapunzels never being rescued Of Griffins dying out of dragons bones being mistaken for dinosaurs Of magic carpets and lamps staying in their caves forever The book reminds me of the first human to turn 80 lifting his eyes to the sun that now did not seem so shiny new any. Greenglass housetohome Kate Milford would do amazingly well if the sequel is as good as book 1 Greenglass house has a Chinese main character and the jade like name for the book is no coincidence I think that there is only one way book 2 would be as good as book 1 and that if the author has deeply thought about it before sending book 1 to her editor. Greenglass house summary Finally I am concluding by not promising if this book will strike a similar chord with others This is a book about children having an adventure but does it make the book for children I think so because the adults especially the latecomers and the parents of the MC are barely detailed This is a discrepancy just because I myself am an adult And maybe therein lies its lack of catching fire for the larger reading community Harry Potter was a success because it had people of all ages sharing space Here I think the book is not set in its time enough for it to please most I don t think it is always the timeless books that gain notoriety and immortality It is the carved wooden figure that becomes a valuable chess piece not a plastic nor the ivory ones It is the Vinyl records that have greater shelf life not the gramophones nor the laser discs 0544052706 When I was a kid I had a real and abiding love of Agatha Christie This would be around the time when I was ten or eleven It wasn t that I was rejecting the mysteries of the children s book world I just didn t have a lot to choose from there Aside from The Westing Game or supernatural ghostly mysteries sold as Apple paperbacks through the Scholastic Book Fair my choices were few and far between Kids today have it better but not by much Though the Edgar Awards for best mystery fiction do dedicate an award for young people s literature the number of honestly good mystery novels for the 9 12 set you encounter in a given year is minimal When you find one that s really extraordinary you want to hold onto it And when it s Kate Milford doing the writing there s nothing for it but to enjoy the ride A raconteur s delight with a story that ll keep em guessing this is one title you won t want to miss It was supposed to be winter vacation Though Milo s parents run an inn with a clientele that tends to include than your average number of smugglers he can always count on winter vacation to be bereft of guests Yet in spite of the awful icy weather a guest appears Then another Then two All told than five guests appear with flimsy excuses for their arrival Some seem to know one another Others act suspiciously And when thefts start to take place Milo and his new friend Meddy decide to turn detective Yet even as they unravel clues about their strange clientele there are always new ones to take their places Someone is sabotaging the Greenglass House but it s the kids who will unmask the culprit To my mind Milford has a talent that few authors can boast She breaks unspoken rules Rules that have been dutifully followed by children s authors for years on end And in breaking them she creates stronger books Greenglass House is just the latest example To my mind three rules are broken here Rule 1 Children s books must mostly be about children Adults are peripheral to the action Rule 2 Time periods are not liquid You cannot switch between them willy nilly Rule 3 Parents must be out of the picture Kill em off or kidnap them or make them negligent evil but by all means get rid of them To each of these Milford thumbs her proverbial nose Let s look at Rule 1 first It is worth noting that with the exception of our two young heroes the bulk of the story focuses on adults with adult problems It has been said by me so take this with a grain of salt that by and large the way most authors chose to write about adults for children is to turn them into small furry animals Redwall etc There is however another way If you have a small innocuous child running hither and thither gathering evidence and spying all the while then you can talk about grown ups for long periods of time and few child readers are the wiser If I keep mentioning The Westing Game it s because Ellen Raskin did very much what Milford is doing here and ended up with a classic children s book in the process So there s certainly a precedent On to Rule 2 One of the remarkable things about Kate Milford as a writer is that she can set a book in the present day there is a mention of televisions in this book so we can at least assume it s relatively recent and then go and fill it with archaic wonderful outdated technology A kind of alternate contemporary steampunk if there is such a thing In an era of electronic doodads child readers are going to really get a kick out of a book where mysterious rusted keys old doorways ancient lamps stained green glass windows and other old timey elements give the book a distinctive flavor Finally Rule 3 This was the most remarkable of choices on Milford s part and I kept reading to book to find out how she d get away with it Milo s parents are an active part of his life They clearly care for him periodically checking up on his throughout the story but never interfering with his investigations Since the book is entirely set in the Greenglass House it has the feel of a stage play which by the way it would adapt to BRILLIANTLY That means you re constantly running into mom and dad but they don t feel like they re hovering This is partly aided by the fact that they re incredibly busy So in a way Milford has discovered a way of removing parental involvement without removing parental care The kids are free to explore and solve crimes and the adult gatekeepers reading this book are comforted by the family situation A rarity if ever there was one But behind all the clues and ghost stories and thefts and lies what Greenglass House really is is the story of a hero s journey Milo starts out a soft spoken kiddo with little faith in his own abilities Donning the mantle of a kind of Dungeons Dragons type character named Negret he taps into a strength that he might otherwise not known he even had There is a moment in the book when Milo starts acting with confidence and actually thinks to himself And I didn t even have to use Negret s Irresistible Blandishment I just did it Milo s slow awakening to his own strengths and abilities is the heart of the novel For all that people will discuss the mystery and the clues it s Milo that holds everything together Much of his personality is embedded in his identity as an adopted kid too I love the mention of orphan magic that Milford makes at one point It s the idea that when something is sundered from its attachments it becomes powerful in the process At no point does Milford ever downplay the importance of the fact that Milo is adopted It isn t a casual fact that s thrown in there and then forgotten For Milo the fact that he was adopted is part of who he is as a person And coming to terms with that is part of his journey as well Little wonder that he gathers such comfort from learning about orphan magic and its potential I m looking at my notes about this book and I see I ve written down little random facts that don t really fit in with this review Things like I did wonder if Milo s name was a kind of unspoken homage to the Milo of The Phantom Tollbooth And The book s attitude towards smuggling is not all that different from say Danny Champion of the World s attitude towards poaching And I love the vocabulary at work here Raconteur Puissance There is a lot a person can say about this book I should note that there is a twist that a couple kids may see coming It is however a fair twist and one that doesn t cheat before you get to it For the most part Milford does a divine job at writing a darned good mystery without sacrificing character development and deeper truths A great grand book for those kiddos who like reading books that make them feel smart Fun fun fun fun fun. Greenglass houseviewonline jackson For ages 9 14 0544052706 A mostly fun adventure mystery story geared for young readers but captivating enough for adults I would recommend reading it during winter as it oozes with great imagery of snow drifts fire places creepy hotel hallways dazzling windows and Intermixed between the mystery are interludes of heartfelt emotion regarding adoption Sometimes the story loses focus and becomes distracted but quickly gets back on pace There are a LOT of characters many of which never develop well enough to have any mental picture of them Still the writing is good and kept me turning the pages 0544052706 I wish I read this during Christmastime because this was a perfectly atmospheric wintery read Milo is excited that it s Christmas break Not only does he get school off but he lives at the Greenglass House an inn where it s very quiet over Christmas That s why it s highly unusual why a load of strangers would check in when it s supposed to be dead Then things start to go missing and stories about the Greenglass House and its history begins to circulate There s a mystery afoot and it s going to take Milo to some unexpected places. Greenglass houseoftoners I loved this book I m so glad I finally listened to Lexi who simply adores this book I see why the cosy atmosphere in this is infectious due to the well written prose I really wanted to curl up with a hot chocolate and read this well into the night I would recommend reading this closer to Christmas though as this really put me in the mood for the festive season 0544052706
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Greenglass House epub.pub com AFAIK There is no fanfic around this series Though I am not sure of the veracity of these statements I am sure you know what I am hinting at Let us proceed.nagspeake.nagspeake
