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World's End #2

by Monica Dickens, مونيكا ديكنز, رجاء جواد كاظم (Translator)

Tom, Carrie, Em and Michael are still living on their own at World's End. In between wondering where the next meal will come from, and trying to avoid interfering grown-ups, they are never short of fun and excitement. Carrie cannot stand to see an animal suffer, and when she plunges into another rescue operation, more perilous than any she has attempted before – putting her, and faithful dog Charlie, into terrible danger – things quickly spiral out of control. Desperately the children struggle to save Charlie from a dreadful fate; but it is a race against time.

Summer at World's End is the second adventure in The World's End Series.

Genres: Animals, Childrens, Horses

Paperback

First published April 5, 1971

About the author

From the publisher: MONICA DICKENS, born in 1915, was brought up in London and was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Her mother's German origins and her Catholicism gave her the detached eye of an outsider; at St Paul's Girls' School she was under occupied and rebellious. After drama school she was a debutante before working as a cook. One Pair of Hands (1939), her first book, described life in the kitchens of Kensington. It was the first of a group of semi autobiographies of which Mariana (1940), technically a novel, was one. 'My aim is to entertain rather than instruct,' she wrote. 'I want readers to recognise life in my books.' In 1951 Monica Dickens married a US naval officer, Roy Stratton, moved to America and adopted two daughters. An extremely popular writer, she involved herself in, and wrote about, good causes such as the Samaritans. After her husband died she lived in a cottage in rural Berkshire, dying there in 1992.
http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/page...

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this wasn't quite as good in an overall way as the first in the series, we still really enjoyed visiting this family of children and animals living in an old house in the country. There were some lovely moments of humour, some wonderful dog observations, great animal rescues and lots of fun outdoor activity.

The very climactic ending stretched belief perhaps in some ways but we were relieved at the conclusion. Reading this felt like a lovely escape from the real world!

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently reread all the Monica Dickens children's novels that I read during my childhood and it struck me what a brilliant (and totally underrated) writer this lady was. At a time when writers were still allowed to be creative, imaginative and different and not everything was edited to sleek perfection, she created works that were fresh, real and often acutely to the point. Her observations of how the human race interacts and her characterisations are spot on - only she gets people down to a t in one brief sentence unlike her grandfather who needed reams of paper to achieve the same. I know which Dickens works, I would take on a desert island with me...

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monica Dickens is the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. To be honest, I am not sure how to review this book. I think I liked the first book better. There are four books in the series.
It certainly has an interesting premise. The Fielding children are left alone to fend for themselves with a myriad of pets that wander or encouraged to wander onto their Uncle's estate called World's End. The kids attract stray and abused animals (as well as humans), they always find ways to care and feed them. It really wasn't until the end of the book that the story really became interesting.

I am wondering if her adult books might be better.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The storyline may wear a bit thin in this series. Mum and Dad are off to the other side of the world (or wherever) on their boat, leaving the kids alone again, so they can cash in on a newspaper article deal. The deal has been offered because of a photo of Mum in a swimsuit, which apparently will make the articles readable? Pfffft. This installment centres more on the horse-mad girl, who rescues another mount that has been mistreated by a spoiled rich girl. A couple of new human characters are introduced, one who has been (or feels) mistreated, and the other--her brother--who is simply ruined, not to say spoiled. The book seems to lack much direction;the anti-vivisection message nearly drowns out the second half of the book--nothing against that message as such, but the end is simply chopped off. Not Dickens' best work.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dont remember much about this book except that I liked it as a child.Might have to do something with the children (the maincharacters) deciding to live by themselves at an old farm after their parent(s) either dies or has to travel.

[Michael Kavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loving my re-reading (after nearly 50 years!) of the four 'World's End' books.
This one I am especially fond of and am astounded how vividly my 'minds-eye' memories of the characters is recalled from first reading.

[K.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are the worst parents ever from an adult perspective, but from a child's point of view... who WOULDNT want to be left alone on a rambling farm adopting animals left and right?

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a breathtaking ending!!

[Michael Bafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea how this title found its way into the "want to read" list on my library account. But it did. I decided to do something about that list which I constantly add to and never detract from and so I picked this and few other titles. This is a young adult novel, the second in the series after The House at World's End. This volume is followed by Winter and then Spring.

World's End is a house, a former inn and home to Carrie, her older brother Tom, her younger sister Em and the youngest, Michael. Their parents are often absent. Their father is a good-natured sailor, reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking's father. He has plans to sail around the world; in order to do so though the newspaper financing the expedition requires that his wife follow along. So the kids are left on their own with a big old house, lots of animals and very little money. They have to earn what they can while still going to school. A free life which they mostly enjoy; and which they get away with pretty easily.

This is quite a complex novel with many incidental characters, incidents that do not really further the main plot and, for my taste, too much, about animals, particularly horses. Ms Dickens is not in any sense sentimental. To achieve a happy end to their adventures the children have to endure hardship, encounter danger, pull together and work hard.

In other aspects this is a simple story in which the good are really good, the bad are really bad and most people fall in the middle.

To relate one incident: Lester lives with his mother who runs a home for "wayward girls". If that's the word I want. They are not so bad that they get pregnant, but they do get into trouble with the adult world and the law. One of the girls is Liza. She does not like living in the home, but even less likes living with her mother and her younger brother.
"Liza's name was Jones. Her mother had gone back to her maiden name of Zlotkin when Mr Jones left her, which seemed a bad exchange for Jones..." (p. 111)
(I can't say that I agree.)
Liza manages to become one of the family at World's End but only at the cost of looking after her younger brother Hubert, "Hube the Boob". Hubert is greedy and selfish and obnoxious and does things just to annoy the others. And so he is bullied by everyone at World's End. This has no effect on him at all. Hubert remains a boob throughout the book. Perhaps he will reform later in the series, but in this book he is incorrigible and badly treated by everyone, even the animals

Carrie is very fond of Lester and he seems more than fond of her but there is never any romance. Both of them seem fonder of their animals, particularly their horses, than each other.

There is a bit of mystery and dark doings afoot, but in the main this is an idyllic summer story – see the cover – where the good times far outweigh the bad.

At one point Charlie, their old dog, is stolen, possibly to be sold to a research lab. Carrie misses him dreadfully,
"...A dog . . . a dog . . . my Charlie with the shaggy hair. She could feel a poem coming on, with the same sort of flushed, sick feeling that tells you a temperature is coming on, or your dinner is coming up, or both..." (p. 146)

Not a lot of laughs, otherwise, but a warm book and somewhat exciting at times.

[Juliann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so happy to rejoin the Fielding children at World's End and find out what happened next. I loved that Charlie is a golden retriever poodle mix long before that was a thing. he reminds me so much of our doodle. and the children's observations about the world and about people are just spot on.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has just reminded me that some things should be kept as beautiful memories and not revisited