The River at Green Knowe

Green Knowe #3

by Lucy M. Boston, Peter Boston

L. M. Boston's thrilling and chilling tales of Green Knowe, a haunted manor deep in an overgrown garden in the English countryside, have been entertaining readers for half a century. Now the children of Green Knowe -- both alive and ghostly -- are back in appealing new editions.

The spooky original illustrations have been retained, but dramatic new cover art by Brett Helquist (illustrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events) gives the books a fresh, timeless appeal for today's readers.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Classics, Adventure, Juvenile

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990), born Lucy Maria Wood, was an English novelist who wrote for children and adults, publishing her work entirely after the age of 60. She is best known for her "Green Knowe" series: six low fantasy children's novels published by Faber between 1954 and 1976. The setting is Green Knowe, an old country manor house based on Boston's Cambridgeshire home at Hemingford Grey. For the fourth book in the series, A Stranger at Green Knowe (1961), she won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.[1]

During her long life, she distinguished herself as a writer, mainly of children’s books, and as the creator of a magical garden. She was also an accomplished artist who had studied drawing and painting in Vienna, and a needlewoman who produced a series of patchworks.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A prosaic reader might say this is a story about three children who spend an idyllic summer at a mansion in Cambridgeshire mostly messing about on the river, and in this they wouldn't be wrong. But this is no ordinary mansion, these are no ordinary children, and this is no ordinary river: this is Green Knowe, and these are children alive to imaginative possibilities, and this is a river where those possibilities can come true.

Mrs Oldknow, who owns the ancient Manor House of Green Knowe, has let it out for the summer to the distinguished archaeologist Dr Maud Biggin and her friend, the homely Miss Sybilla Bun. Dr Biggin promptly decides to invite her great-niece Ida and two refugee boys called Oskar and Hsu to stay for the holidays.

Ida (11), affectionately called Midget, along with Oskar Stanislawsky from Poland (also 11) and Hsu, known as Ping, who's from China, happily get on well together and, left to their own devices, get on with enjoying lazy days and stealthy nights exploring and mapping the river. This being Green Knowe the trio soon find there is unexpected natural magic around every corner.

First let's focus on the adults. Maud Biggin is trying to complete her paper, A Reconstruction of the Habits and Diet of the Ogru: a Summary of Recent Discoveries, and typifies those who favour intellect over instinct. Sybilla Bun however thinks the route to happiness is through food and is therefore concerned with ensuring young bodies are well-, even over-nourished. But, as Oskar observes, "What you don't notice isn't there": both grown-ups, however well-intentioned, are largely unaware of what the children need, and take no real interest in what consumes their waking hours -- in fact the pair seem remarkably unobservant of present matters, only of the past:

Ping sighed. "I can't understand -- when it's the thing [grown-ups] want most in the world and it's there before their eyes -- why they won't see it."

"They are often like that," said Oskar wisely. "They don't like now. If it's really interesting, it has to be then."

What do the children need? The leisure to appreciate what's in front of and around them in the now time. There's the natural world -- things like swallows weaving through the sky and 'cutting figures of eight at ground level', or the telltale signs of imminent flooding:

On windy days the surface of the river is raised in little pyramids streaked like the crisscross fork pattern on mashed potatoes.

From their canoe they see bywaters where a decaying mansion houses owls and a simple structure shelters a hermit; they discern a living being in a fallen tree and a herd of horses which might take flight at any moment; when they steal out at night they witness a prehistoric dance in the shadows cast by a full moon.

Seen from the punt, the world was a symmetrical but unfamiliar pattern of bulky blacknesses jutting into quicksilver. The daylight line between reality and reflection was gone.

Lucy Boston wrote with the imaginative curiosity of a child and the sensitivity of a poet, as the alliteration and imagery conjured up by the previous passage make crystal clear. By shifting from the house and garden explored in The Children of Green Knowe to the surrounding countryside she allows us readers to share in the real delights of boating on the River Great Ouse, paddling past Hemingford Grey and through locks, under bridges, around islands, down the stream which eventually spills into the distant Wash. There are echoes, conscious or not, of The Wind in the Willows, of Grendel and his mother in the fens, and of many other literary riparian explorations, but this novel is of itself.

'The course of the river that they knew so well was as mysterious as a foreign language.' Similarly Boston's writing is alive with mirrored reflections, alert to secrets and aware of eyes with which to see them. The trio draw a map of the river, marking the locks and the bridges, Flying Horse Island and Hermit Island, Owl Palace Island and the Island of the Throning Moon; like the Wonderland Alice drifting down another river they experience being both miniscule as a field mouse and dwarfed by their friends, and also awed by true giants. Above all they observe the strange behaviours of some adults, their ambiguous attitudes to those with differences -- people like circus performers -- and their indifference to displaced persons such as refugees:

"You don't understand," said Ping. "They don't send displaced persons home. They put them in camps. They might even put them in the zoo."

It's that mix of awe and compassion that comes through so strongly in these pages, along with friendship of the type enjoyed by the children. The story's punctuated by sharp images -- a message in a bottle, an antlered shaman, an owl emerging from shadow; and by repetitive sounds -- natural noises, or the susurration of seeds or bones on a necklace, the jangle of sistra or rattling of teeth; and, once, a moment when a great secret is vouchsafed to the children:

They were standing at midnight, alone, under a sky that was there before either earth or moon had been and would be there long after. In this agonising second of revelation that ALL passes, the bark of a disturbed heron caused them to clutch each other, and jerked loose their tongues.

Because of this author's words we can live -- if all too briefly -- in an endless now, become as little children, and enter a kind of heaven.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The River at Green Knowe is the third book that I've read in the series by Lucy M. Boston and I found it to be as enchanting as the others.

In this story, the children - Ida, Oskar and Ping - go to stay at Green Knowe with Ida's Great Aunt Maud and her friend, Miss Bun. The adults let the children plan their own summer holiday, so Ida, Oskar and Ping embark on wonderful adventures along the many waterways around the house.

For me, the charm of the story lies in the descriptions of the river and the wild life. Lucy M. Boston brings the setting alive. She is also adept at introducing truly magical elements into her storytelling; an important feature in her writing.

I was particularly "taken" by the last conversation in the book, which I will quote in full:
'Ida said,"I'm sorry, Ping. One can't do anything for grown ups. They're hopeless."
Ping sighed. "I can't understand, when it's the thing they most want in the world, and it's there before their eyes, why they won't see it."
"They are often like that," said Oskar, wisely. "They don't like now. If it's really interesting, it has to be then."'

This was an ideal quick read for a hot summer's day!

[BookSweetie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The third of six in the Green Knowe series.

Green Knowe is based upon an actual English house where author Lucy Boston lived: The Manor at Hemingford Grey built in the 1130s complete with moat and gardens; it is one of the oldest continuously occupied houses in Britain.

I can't believe Mrs. Oldknow (and Tolly) to whom readers have become attached in the first two books.... are simply gone with no clear explanation --- and a whole new cast of characters inhabit Green Knowe for the summer!

Am I the only one puzzled?

Two adults who are quite in the background and three children unknown previously to one another: Ida, Oskar, and Hsu (called Ping) infiltrate with no good reason from a reader's point of view. The kids head to the canoe and the river... and well, it's not very memorable.

I just can't be fair in my response since my expectations about the series being about Mrs. Oldknow and Tolly and Green Knowe's past... were befuddled.

The likable Ping is the only character from this grouping who seems to survive to reappear in a main role in other books.

[Joy Manne · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are children’s books for children defined by age, and children’s books for everyone’s Inner Child. Boston takes us on a journey through the countryside and the country of unlimited imagination and innocence. Would a modern child be able to travel with her?

Two eccentric old women, Dr Maud Biggin, an archaeologist, and Miss Sybilla Bun, a cook, eater and provider of food for others rent the old house Green Knowe for the summer and invite two displaced children, Oskar and Ping, as well as Maud’s niece Ida to share it with them through the summer. The house is safe on an island but the river floods the surrounding lands regularly so there are no other houses or factories. The surroundings are idyllic and pure. There is no threat of danger from people or the environment and only enough in their adventures to give them life and urgency.
There is no sexualising of the children: Oskar and Ida are eleven, Ping is nine, and all sleep together in the attic, on one occasion in the same bed. No innuendo. There’s no racism, no violence, no disrespect. Ping is Chinese. His slit eyes are seen with love for their beauty.
We are in a dream world of innocence. The children have a canoe and venture on the river by day and by night. They return a lost cygnet to its parent swans. They discover an abandoned house inhabited by an aggressive owl that chases them out. They come across a hermit escaping from the material world who explains to them how he lives very well without it. they go safely into his tree house to see how he lives. They discover flying horses. They come across giants.
The language is gourmet, a language-fest. Characters are observed in fine subtle detail. ‘So distant were her thoughts that she ate as people eat alone, with a bulging cheek and uninhibited swallowing noises.’ Settings pulse with movement, ‘a canoe lay fretting and tugging at its mooring … and the water that reflected it received it as part of itself.’ We hear the environment when the children play a game of shutting their eyes and saying everything they can hear, ‘ …a fishing rod playing out; zizz, buzz, trill, crick, whizz, plot, flutter, splash; and all the time whisper, whisper, whisper, lap, chuckle and sigh.’ Everything belongs. We are in a whole. We are treated to illustrations that enhance the story.
This is a world of magic and of oneness. I don’t put the book back on my shelf. I keep reopening the book to read at random any paragraph. Transcendental.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely adored the first two books in L.M. Boston’s Green Knowe series. In the first, The Children of Green Knowe, we meet Toseland, nicknamed Tolly, a boy sent to live with his great-grandmother, Mrs. Oldknow, and three 17th century children who haunt Green Knowe from their painting. In the next book, The Treasure of Green Knowe, I missed the ghostly but gentle Toby, Linnet and Alexander Oldknow, but I reveled at the return of Tolly and Mrs. Oldknow and the introduction of two 18th century child ghosts, Susan Oldknow and Jacob, a freed slave. But all of them are gone but for a mention in the third book, The River at Green Knowe, and the slim volume is much poorer for it.

Instead of Tolly and the ghosts of Green Knowe, The River at Green Knowe focuses on Ida, whose peculiar aunt is renting Green Knowe for the summer, and two refugee children, Oskar and Ping. As the title implies, the book also focuses on the river rather than on the Green Knowe mansion itself. What with its shrinking and growing, fantasy creatures and time travel, The River at Green Knowe turn into equal parts Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — but without the charm of either — and simply doesn’t measure up to the first two books. Except for dyed-in-the-wool L.M. Boston fans, give this a miss.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two eccentric older ladies Dr. Maud Biggin and Miss Sybilla Bun rent Green Knowe for the summer and invite Dr. Biggin's great-niece Ida as well as two displaced children Oskar and Ping to keep them company.

While Dr. Biggin works on her book, and Miss Bun busies herself in the kitchen and about the house, the children explore the river. Ida, Oskar, and Ping have daily adventures and experience multiple fantastical occurrences, including encounters with a giant, a modern day wildman, and winged horses.

The children do not meet the ghosts of any of the Green Knowe's previous inhabitants, but they do encounter Piers Madely the 17th Century vicar of Penny Sokey via the discovery of a confession he had written, sealed in a bottle, and thrown into the river. They also experience a time slip and witness a pagan ritual -- possibly for Cernunnos -- during the full moon before a wattle and daub structure standing at the future site of Green Knowe.

When I first read the Chronicles of Green Knowe, I skipped The River at Green Knowe and A Stranger at Green Knowe because they didn't contain Tolly or the house spirits. I have since realized that was foolish. This book was wonderful that I'm sorry that the characters of Oskar and Ida don't reappear in any of the later books. I would have liked to see an adventure with Oskar, Tolly, and Toby.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two middle-aged women are renting Green Knowe, and they invite Ida, a great-niece, and two children, Oskar and Hsu, from The Society for Promotion of Summer Holidays for Displaced Children. Oskar, Ida, and Hsu (called Ping), find a canoe, and begin a holiday of exploring the river outside Green Knowe. Written in the 1950s, this is a strange follow-on from the previous Green Knowe stories, as the disappearance of Tolly and Mrs Oldknow is not explained, and the sense of Green Knowe as a place is completely different. The previous descriptions of Green Knowe captured a strange and historic house, full of ghosts and beauty, whereas the Green Knowe here is a simply a place the children eat their meals before they begin their adventures along the river. The river is a very magical place, where children can change size, giants dwell, and horses grow wings. Boston's descriptions of the magical within the real, and of the beauty of the summer river, hold this book together, and create something very readable, strange and entertaining. However, part of what made the previous books work for me was the strong sense of Tolly's character, and the rootedness of place, both of which are lost here. I never really got a sense of Ida, Ping or Oskar, and that was a large part of why this book felt rather flat to me.

[Sirpa Grierson · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one writes about nature and the countryside as beautifully as do the British. Theirs is a long tradition of noticing, treasuring, and articulating beauty. I grew up with this series and as an adult am so impressed with the authors of this time, like Boston, who never thought to talk down to children in their writing.

This volume, number three in the series, does not bring in the characters from the previous books. Instead it is comprised of adventures, sometimes magical, for three children who stay with a preoccupied archeologist and her cook at Green Knowe manor for a summer, with total freedom to explore the world around them. They canoe along the River Ouse, that runs past the banks of the property, and create a map of their discoveries on paper in the attic bedroom which they share. Filled with wonder and innocence, this was a delight to read again. Oh, for the days when kids were not over-scheduled and learned the happy talent for imaginary play outdoors!

I am also happy to note that L.M. Boston’s daughter-in-law Diana Boston has been living in this home with its thousand year history and that one can visit the real house in England in Cambridgeshire Hemingford Grey.
https://web.archive.org/web/201205090...

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 2 out of 5]

ENGLISH: Instead of Tolly and his great-grandmother, in this third book of the series the protagonists change. They are three children from 9 to 11 (two of them foreign refugees, a Pole and a Chinese), who dedicate themselves to explore the river near Green Knowe. Ping, the Chinese boy, will become the protagonist of the fourth book in the series, along with Tolly's great-grandmother and an unexpected third character.

As in the first book in the serie, the adventures of these three children do not always distinguish clearly between real life and imagination. In fact, they grow increasingly imaginative, until they get -for me- a little too far.

ESPAÑOL: En vez de Tolly y su bisabuela, en este tercer libro de la serie los protagonistas cambian, y pasan a ser tres niños de 9 a 11 años (dos de ellos refugiados extranjeros, un polaco y un chino), que se dedican a explorar el río que pasa cerca de Green Knowe. Ping, el niño chino, pasará a ser el protagonista del cuarto libro de la serie, junto con la bisabuela de Tolly y un tercer personaje inesperado.

Como en el primer libro de la serie, las aventuras de estos tres niños no siempre distinguen con claridad entre la vida real y la imaginación. De hecho, se vuelven cada vez más imaginativos, hasta que llegan demasiado lejos, en mi opinión.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the previous Green Knowe book was difficult reading this one was rather confusing. You see without giving away spoilers you are suddenly introduced to a whole new cast of characters - its the same house and surrounding countryside - however the occupants at the house are all change - with very little explanation or reason.

Now I am sure at the time of the book being written it was common place for properties to be let out for months at a time while the occupants went travelling but with next to no warning or explanation (unless it is discussed in future books) it was a bit of a surprise.

However once the story was underway and things settled down this story flowed a lot more easily and enjoyably although it feels like the magic and mystery surrounding the house and its gardens seems to be getting grander and grander - so I wonder where next things will take us since "setting the bar" can be counterproductive at times.

[Mathew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The archaeologist, Doctor Biggin and her friend, Miss Bun rent out Green Knowe over the Summer and decide to invite two 'displaced' refugees to accompany Doctor Biggin's niece, Ida. The Doctor is here to investigate the presence and history of giants on our isles and her Miss Bun to provide company and food.
With no Tolly and Mrs. Oldknow present, the adventures lie with Ida, Oskar and Hsu (or Ping as he is named). Together, they canoe through the river and canals around Green Knowe, discovering flying horses, moon worshiping Bronze Age people and a 'displaced' giant.
There was no continuity here for me in this installment; I felt we missed the presence of Mrs. Oldknow to ground us in the place. Yet, with her missing, we also miss out on Green Knowe itself and, instead, are left to explore its surroundings. To me, this at least made sense. Mrs. Oldknow is the custodian and the channel through which we see the house's history, with her absent, the children must travel outside its boundaries.
I also struggled with accepting the naming of Ping. I understand that, much like Jacob in 'Chimneys', Boston is trying to create a space for racially and culturally diverse characters and, in 1959, she possibly did a valiant job of it but naming a character 'Ping' because no one could understand of pronounce this name (Hsu) would, in our times, be considered offensive and tactless. I also had a problem with the giant, whose father was humiliated and tricked into performing at a circus, who finds joy and security by doing the very same thing...

[Elinor Loredan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two years ago I didn't get even ten pages into this book, but now I've finished it. Boston certainly shows wonderful imagination and beautiful writing, especially in a passage on page 131:

'When the sun is in the sky, every eye turns away to escape the blaze, but the moon compels sight and thought to follow its course up toward the zenith, with the result that by contrast the height of trees and buildings seems dwarfed. Green Knowe seemed smaller, but at the same time charged with awe. It had changed its friendly old fairy-tale quality for something far older and terrifyingly different.'

But though I like the characters and the humor in the two matrons, this volume in the series has none of the coziness or magic of the first two. I miss Tolly and Mrs. Oldknow's quiet evenings of storytelling, and Tolly's exploring within and on the grounds of Green Knowe, finding more traces of its old inhabitants each day.

I definitely won't reread River, but I will continue with the series.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised that this book is almost entirely unrelated to the earlier ones in the series. The only link is the location. All the magic that we have come to expect from the house was absent - it could have easily been set somewhere else. Overall, it's a very nice summer story. This book had some things in common with Coot Club and Secret Water by Arthur Ransome. Some adventures were entirely realistic, and others were fantastical. The trio of kids was somewhat contrived in an early diversity effort, but maybe the days of the Cold War gives that a bit more believability. Related to that, there's a little political content, certainly more than in the earlier books. We also get some thoughtful philosophy, which isn't unwelcome.

[EJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a lovely little book that meanders much like the river of the title. Some racial stereotypes, but overall much better than I was dreading it would be on a re-read as an adult. I love the way the veil between worlds is so thin in these books, just like I remember it being for me as a child, and the way it can go so quickly from prosaic adventures such as a good picnic and an interesting beetle to full-moon-midnights with the Horned Ones. Just what all the best children's literature should be IMO.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

More episodic then the other books in the series, this is still rewarding. Very well written, with nice set pieces. Still, and it is very fresh in my mind, this is my least favorite of the five early books. I missed Mrs. Oldknowe and Tolly.

[Mrs J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book quite jarring as while it takes place at the house it doesn't really reference the previous two books. It would have been nice if there was a little nod here and there to the preceding stories. This book had more of a fable style and while I enjoyed the imagination and adventure it didn't have the same folk-horror quality of the books I've read so far. I did very much enjoy the two adult women who were renting the house and were educated and funny. Fairly refreshing for the times I imagine.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve only recently discovered the Green Knowe books by Lucy M. Boston. Although they are written for children, adults who enjoy fantasy will also love them. I was a little disappointed that Mrs. Oldknowe and Tolly weren’t in this third book, but quickly got over it with the new characters Dr. Maud Biggin and Sybilla Bun. After the two women rent Green Knowe for the summer, they send off to the S.P.S.H.D.C. (Society for the Promotion of Summer Holidays for Displaced Children). That’s how Oskar and Ping are invited to stay along with Maud’s niece Ida. The children are allowed to do as they please as long as they show up on time for meals. There is a canoe they use to travel along the river and map the islands around Green Knowe. They encounter flying horses, giants, a homeless tramp and find messages in a bottle. It’s amazing to me how little attention the women paid to the visiting children. After being rescued and returned home after being out on the river during a flood, Maud just says “children have 9 lives and if Ida takes after her aunt she’s got 10”.
These books are such a treat. I have 3 more to read and I’m trying to parcel them out. The language is beautiful and Lucy’s son Peter has illustrated them. They were written from 1954 to 1976, originally published in Great Britain, but have also been published in the US.

[Paul Riches · Rating 4 out of 5]

Green Knowe and Tolly and Ping and Susan and Jacob are Great New Friends





Some months back I was making the rounds of a bunch of Little Free Libraries I frequent, and I find something I had never heard of before, a children’s book called A Stranger At Green Knowe.

Turns out this is part of famous series of British kids books, The Green Knowe, and have been adapted several times, and the writer is a celebrity, the manor home featured is a tourist spot, and……

I had never heard of it.

So being an intrepid soul, I got all six books from my local public library and plunged into the world of Green Knowe and Tolly and Susan and Jacob and Ping and Ida and of course, the matriarch of this all, Mrs Oldknow. All written by the late L.M. Boston, who lived in the house the stories were based on.

With book one from 1954, The Children Of Green Knowe, we have young Tolly who is sent to stay for the holidays with his great grandmother Mrs Oldknow, who lives in the middle of nowhere in the huge manor house called Green Knowe. It is a ramblely, creaky place, and untold of centuries old, with Mrs Oldknow being the latest in an unbroken line of succession, and the keeper of the truths that she loves to tell to the attentive Tolly. And these stories include the power to communicate with the ghosts who inhabit the manor. Tolly interacts with several of these ancestor ghosts, who appear as children, and even becomes friends with Linnet and Alexander, who know he is from the future. He also gets a dog, Orlando, who can also play with these echoes. This is our introduction to the magic of this place, and so many of the things it can do, and it is interesting as well. You can tell other fantasy authors have read these books.

Months later, Tolly excitedly returns to Green Knowe for Easter and finds out from Mrs Oldknow that Green Knowe has financial difficulties. This, combined with more stories from hundreds of years past, leads Tolly to meet more ghosts from a different era, Susan and Jacob, and a mystery that might save the day. What makes book two, The Chimneys Of Green Knowe, so interesting is the liberal politics of the time on display. Jacob is a slave boy that Susan’s father, who finds slavery abhorrent, gives as a companion to his young blind daughter. They become like brother and sister, which really pisses off Susan’s actual brother. It is obvious Boston is trying to make a very progressive statement for 1958, when Chimneys came out, which is laudable but still feels somewhat stilted and slightly backwards. But she is trying, which is commendable.

And this trying leads to book three, the very different The River At Green Knowe, where the cast changes entirely with no explanation. Two old scientist woman have rented out Green Knowe and they are annoying as hell, but they take in several refugee children, Ping and Ida and Oskar, so they are not totally yucky. The kids spend their time going around the river on the property and meet all sorts of wild and colourful characters, maybe too much so for this series. I wonder if this was some sort Gulliver’s Travels idea, where each person represents some political idea Boston was parodying or outright mocking. And having refugee children making the point by humanizing the other side is a great idea, and the people of the time of 1959 probably understood it better since they knew the issues.

By 1961 and book four, Boston seems to have found a good common ground for her politics and a children’s story with A Stranger At Green Knowe. This is my favourite of the series, and interestingly enough, the only one with no magic in it. A gorilla is kidnapped from its tribe in Africa and out into a zoo, where he meets Ping, who was introduced in the previous book. Ping then sets out to Green Knowe to be with Mrs Oldknow, who is back with some explanation. At the same time, the gorilla Hanno escapes the zoo and winds up in, well Green Knowe of course, where Ping finds him and takes care of his new friend. This one is deeper with strong themes of friendship and loneliness and Mrs Oldknow is just perfect at the end with everything about her.

A crossover event happened in book five in 1964 with the darker An Enemy At Green Knowe, where Mrs Oldknow hosts both Tolly AND Ping! And the two boys get along like the best of buddies, loving adventure, exchanging tales, and of course protecting Mrs Oldknow. This is good because a mysterious woman moves in nearby Green Knowe and is very pushy trying to find something at the manor. Her persistence goes into crazy territory with hypnotism, ancient magic, and plagues of animals. But Tolly and Ping defend Mrs Oldknow and Green Knowe from all these attacks, until they finally defeat the enemy. This one had me laughing because of its dark humour and inventiveness, and many cool bits, which make this one just zip along.

The sixth and final book is The Stones Of Green Knowe, released in 1976, and is a tale largely set even further in the past then any of the other Green Knowe series. Roger is a young lad whose family is nobility, and they are building the home to be known as Green Knowe. While exploring the area, he comes across ancient thrones that might have belonged to elves or leprechauns, and without realizing it, he travels forward in time multiple times and meets the same ghosts, now just people, in their time periods, and becomes fast friends. He also learns to really appreciate the home his parents are building and how it last through the ages. Probably knowing this would be the last book, Boston gives us an Avengers Endgame style scene towards the end where Roger and Tolley and Susan and Jacob and so many more get together, but just to hang out, not fight a great battle. The themes of family and history and preserving nature and honoring the past is all through Stones, and it feels like a very fitting way to cap off the series. This is not surprising since L.M. Boston was 84 when this book came out, and she wanted one last chance to preach her thoughts on family and history and the magic of it all.

This magic should be a shoo-in for adaptations, and Green Knowe has been made into a radio drama and television miniseries and a movie. I have not consumed the radio show or miniseries, but the film, called From Time To Time, I have seen. It tells the story from Chimney, with Susan and Jacob, but it is not very good, with too many changes.

Boston might not have minded the changes, since she herself made so many to her own series along the way, with casts coming and going and themes always changing and evolving. Just like she did herself. L.M. Boston was born Lucy Marie Boston, who lived from 1892 to 1990, and in 1935 she moved into a manor home which she then fixed up. Years later at age 62, and inspired by the living history of her home, she writes the first Green Knowe story, making a total of six from 1954 to 1976. It is still their, as a testament to her stories, and tours are available.

It is fascinating to dive into and experience the power of such a legendary series, one that I had never heard of.

It is like seeing hidden magic.

Scoopriches

[T.E. Shepherd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Boston's first and original book, The Children of Green Knowe has long been a favourite of mine - a ghost story with a hint of fantasy set in the quietly mysterious Fens. Six years ago I visited the actual Green Knowe house and had a tour of the Norman manor house in Hemingford Grey by Lucy's daughter, Diana Boston.

The second book in the series, The Chimneys of Green Knowe is a similarly fantastical time-shift story, but this third installment lacks for most of the story any of the ghost or fantasy elements of the story.

The story concerns a new set of children who are visiting the house for the summer, but it is a story that is for the most part less about Green Knowe but the river that surrounds it and concerned with the adventures, discoveries, and the people that the children meet whilst messing about on the river. Mrs Oldknowe, the old lady of the earlier stories, is mentioned only once in passing is not until the last short section that the house takes on its old, mysterious persona.

For all this it is absolutely beautifully and sumptuously written, and a delight to read, and makes me want to go back and explore the real gardens with its strange topiary that really could come to life upon a moonlit evening.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 8yo daughter loves the Greene Knowe books, and I remember loving them as a child so we're very much enjoying reading them together. We both loved the first two (The Children of Green Knowe, the Chimneys of Green Knowe), but both were a little disappointed in this book.

It took us a long time to read, I suspect because the story has much less narrative drive than the two previous books - it's not a plot, so much as a series of extraordinary and magical adventures strung together with no real climax or development. The three children, Oskar, Ida and Ping, are likeable, but they're not Tolly or Toby (from the first books), and the house was much less of a presence in this book.

The river was more present, however, since all the children's adventures take place as they make excursions in a canoe, and this gave the book something of a transient feel - we know that these children are only guests in the house, there for a short few weeks until the real owners return, and their travels on the river only add to this impermanent feel to the book. My daughter and I found ourselves looking forward to the next book, when the newcomers flow away like their enchanted river and the "real" Green Knowe characters come back.

[Emily Rozmus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't remember reading this book in the series when I was young. Our school library had a decent selection of books, but series tended to be incomplete. So when I started reading this I was disappointed. Where were Mrs. Oldknow And Tolly? Three strange children on the river that flowed by Green Knowe...I could tolerate this book at best. But of course, as Boston's book went on, I realized how any she was able to make any story about this house a magical and meaningful tale. The islands of the river and the story of their names bestowed by the children were each increasingly amazing, fantastic, and finally, mesmerizing. Winged horses, hermits, and little men. But my favorite was the final island - where an ancient cathedral sat in the place of Green Knowe. It confirmed what readers have always known: the magic of Green Knowe has always been there. As Oskar says about grown ups, "when it's the thing they most want in the world and it's there before their eyes- why don't they see it." I am glad for these stories and this place to help me see that which I most want.

[Books Kids Like · Rating 4 out of 5]

One summer, Dr. Maud Biggin chooses Green Knowe as a perfect spot to write a book on prehistoric men. She invites her niece, Ida, and two orphan boys. Ida, Oskar, and Ping spend their time on the river. Each place they explore is named and drawn on their map. When they explore the river bottom for treasure, Ida finds a lock key that enables them to open any river lock without assistance. Many adventures follow. They find Owl Palace Island and its companion, Hermit Island, which is inhabited by a real hermit. One night, they encounter ethereal flying horses. Another day, they unknowingly sail off during a flood and are swept far down stream. They find a windmill inhabited by a giant and his mother. These experiences are so magical that the children don’t know if they really happened or if they were just dreaming the same dream.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again beautiful. The story was totally different from the first Children of Green Knowe (I skipped the second book). While that one reminded me of The Dark is Rising, this one was like Gulliver´s Travels with a taste of Alice in Wonderland, experiencing the life of a little mouse, meeting a giant, and even an old hermit on their travels. Although there were hints of myth and legend, it was a completely different feel from the ghostly presence of a past time in the first.

゛I can’t understand, when it’s the thing they want most in the world, and it’s there before their eyes, why they won’t see it.’
‘They are often like that,’ said Oskar wisely. ‘They don’t like now. If it’s really interesting it has to be then.’

It reminded me to see and enjoy what is in front of me more.

Also, the author info at the back said she was published in her sixties. I knew it but it was nice to have further confirmation that it is never too late😊

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where did Mrs. Oldknow and Tolly go?! Book three in the Children of Green Knowe series is a good enough fantasy story, but so different than the first two that it didn't seem part of the series at all.

Mrs. Oldknow is away and has evidently let the house for the summer to two friends, Dr. Maud Biggin and Miss Sybilla Bun. They've sent for two refugee boys to stay with them for the summer, Oskar from Poland and Ping from China, and are also hosting Dr. Biggin's niece, Ida. The children are unsupervised by the two eccentric women, and spend their summer having a variety of fantastic adventures on the river in an old canoe. They come across an old hermit, winged horses, a giant, and are transported back in time to witness a terrifying ritual of moon worship.

The series is much more enjoyable when stickiing to the current and past residents of Green Knowe.

[Belinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly my least fav of the series of 5 because Tolly is missing and there are some rather pointed references to Ping's slanted eyes and different ways. I also didn't like that they renamed him so his name could be pronounced. There is definitely some racism in this book.
There are good adventures though.
I didn't like either of the adults much, both were too distant and it wasn't believable that they had no idea what they did all day despite the river nearby.
A pleasant read but definitely the weak link.

[Miri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread this book as I remembered having read it as a child. It's a bit of a departure from the first two in the series (and in my opinion goes down in quality) as it begins to include more random incongruous magical elements that differ wildly from those in the first two books, although these are in some way enjoyable. There was some undeniable racial stereotyping going on in this book so I found it hard to enjoy the characters, but that said it's still a children's classic.

[Tabitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite one of the series so far!! Scrumptious and beautiful with just the right mix of reality and fantasy. I didn't want it to end and will be thinking of their adventures for many days. At first I was disappointed to not meet Tolly and his grandmother, but Ida, Oskar, and Ping have become new heroes and the two aunts kept me laughing. Such a gorgeous book.

[A Hudak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Green Knowe book did have wonderful descriptions of three children exploring the river near Green Knowe, but I found the mixture of realistic and fantastical episodes jarring. To me, the realistic adventures were charming but the fantasy ones just disconcerting and out of place.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes it's a bit dated and circuses with animals are definitely not good. But, overlook the era this was written and instead marvel at the beautiful imagery, the subtle twists and turns of imagination and a delightful understanding of children what they love.

4.5 stars.

[PP9000 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three children enjoy a summer away! There are some wonderfully naive & innocent moments in this book that are really fun to read. All three of the children are really likeable & their world is described beautifully.