Ask Me No Questions

by Ann Schlee

Laura was sent to the country from London to escape the cholera in 1848. Despite all the mysterious secrets and evasions, Laura knew that the children living next door to her aunt's house were starving; but it seemed as if none of the grown-ups knew - or cared. So she tried to help by herself - until tragedy struck.

228 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1976

About the author

Ann Schlee was born in Connecticut in 1934 and spent parts of her childhood and adolescence in Egypt, Sudan, Khartoum, and Eritrea. She went to boarding school in England and read English at Somerville College, Oxford. In 1957 she married artist Nick Schlee, brought up their four children, and wrote five children’s novels, including The Vandal, which won the 1980 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Rhine Journey, the first of her novels for adults, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1981. Subsequently she combined her writing with teaching, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escaping the city's cholera outbreak in 1848 at her aunt's country house, Laura and her little brother discover poor children eating from the pig trough in the family's barn, but no one will listen to her concerns.
This is disturbing, rewarding, and astonishingly relevant even today. Even though set in a distant past, it is a reminder of how often people don't and won't attend to the the sufferings of others. Much as Laura would like to be able to tell someone about the starving children next door, she can't, partly because of her own "governed" good behavior. The attractive schoolteacher, Miss Roylance, also tries; for her efforts is relieved of her position. Eventually the children in the asylum next door also succumb to cholera. The story of the asylum is based on historical record and the man who ran it was acquitted. Laura's basic question: is it right to do wrong for a good reason, laid out for young readers in the question of whether it was wrong to steal the pie to feed the starving children. The town leaders wilful (and often self-serving) ignorance and denial rings true, still. You will know these people.

[Sula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly dark for a Puffin Book. Based on the true story of Bartholomew Drouet who ran a school for workhouse children. Laura and her brother go to stay with her Aunt who lives next door to this school. She discovers the true conditions these children live in, but the adults around her don't believe her or choose not to know. As with real life there is no simple resolution and happy solution and things only get worse before they get better.