RACKETTY-PACKETTY HOUSE

by Frances Hodgson Burnett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1975

Like the dollhouse in the story, this account by one Queen Crosspatch, who sends in fairies ex machina when the going gets rough, has no doubt been relegated to a dusty corner as too old-fashioned. . . . and is resurrected here, we can only surmise, for its quaintness. Though Cynthia's nurse hides the old racketty-packetty house behind the nursery door upon the arrival of an elegant Tidy Castle, its ragged inhabitants are so fun loving that newcomer Lady Patsy envies their antics from her castle window and later joins them, marrying one of their number. (Dolls, it's explained, can move about when people are not watching.) And when the racketty-packetty crew nurse and entertain the other castle dwellers through scarlet fever they're rewarded with such praise as ""OH! You delightful, funny, shabby old loves! To think we scorned you."" But that's not all, for at last a real princess comes to visit Cynthia and takes on so about the ""shabby, . . funny, good-natured loves"" that Cynthia gives them to her to take home and spiff up. As for the bland pictures, Holly Johnson's dolls are neither lifelike (understandably) nor realistically doll-like, and her indifferently dilapidated, unparticularized house misses the chance to interest or charm dollhouse fanciers like the princess.

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1975

ISBN: 1420934309

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1975

Categories: FICTION