With this fey venture into kiddie Gothic, the august two-time Newbery winner and author of the beloved Anastasia Krupnik series proves that a writer can always reinvent herself. Lacing her narrative with references to classics from the hoariest corners of the canon, Lowry channels her inner Snicket to great effect. The Willoughby children—Timothy, Barnaby, Barnaby and Jane—do “the kinds of things that children in old-fashioned stories do.” Sort of. When they find a baby abandoned on their doorstep, they re-abandon her on a neighbor’s doorstep. And when they realize that their parents want to get rid of them, too, they develop a plan to do away with them first. Abetted by their Nanny (who is “not one bit like that fly-by-night [Mary Poppins]”) and taking inspiration from their storybooks, they thwart their parents’ plans and, via a series of increasingly absurd plot twists, find themselves happily rid of their ghastly parents and reunited with the once-abandoned baby. Readers who are willing to give themselves up entirely to the sly foolishness will relish this sparklingly smart satire, which treats them with collegial familiarity. (snort-inducing glossary) (Fiction. 9-12)
