Penelope Farmer – Emma in Winter

90. Emma in Winter by Penelope Farmer (1966)
Aviary Hall, Book 2

Length: 160 pages

Genre: Children’s/Young Adult

Started: 27 August 2007
Finished: 29 August 2007

Summary: Now that Charlotte has gone off to boarding school, Emma Makepeace is left alone and mostly friendless in her small town. Added to that, she’s begun having strange, frightening dreams of flying that involve Bobby Fumpkins, a fat, unpopular boy from school. Then she finds out that he’s having the same dreams, and they must learn what the dreams want with them, and how to escape from their power.

Review: I didn’t particularly care for this book – it’s not as interesting as Charlotte Sometimes and doesn’t have the charm of The Summer Birds. It’s kind of a mystery, except the ending doesn’t really explain anything about why they’re having the dreams or what they meant or anything. Added to that, both Bobby and Emma kind of annoyed me – they may be pretty realistic pre-teens, especially for when this was written, but they’re not ones that I’d want to spend much time around. 2 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Skip it. There’s some nice descriptive passages but the actual plot’s pretty weak.

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