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THE EXILES AT HOME by Hilary McKay

THE EXILES AT HOME

By

Pub Date: Nov. 1st, 1994
ISBN: 141696729X
Publisher: McElderry

Ruth, Naomi, Rachel, and Phoebe Conroy are up to their old mischief in this sequel to The Exiles (1992). The young Britishers are back from their Big Grandma's house in Cumbria and are now wreaking havoc at home, specifically because Ruth pledges ten pounds a month to support an African boy's education. Unfortunately, her monthly pocket money doesn't come close to ten pounds and, because she lied about her age on the form she sent in, she can't tell her parents about her ""illegal"" doings. So Ruth recruits Naomi to help her make money. Ruth baby-sits for Peter, the little monster baby next door, at a pound a session, and Naomi becomes a gardener for an extremely aged couple, Toby and Emma. Eventually, the two Little Ones, Rachel and Phoebe, get involved as well, making sandwiches of dubious cleanliness to sell to their classmates. But the four still have trouble scraping together the money. Naomi stops charging the simpatico old folks for her services -- she suspects they are too poor to afford her -- and Ruth's regular paycheck is threatened when Peter becomes unaccountably well-behaved. The Conroy parents are mystified and annoyed by the girls' troublemaking, but Big Grandma and Emma come to the rescue. All the misunderstandings are cleared up, and the Exiles even get a trip to Africa in the bargain. The Conroy sisters are slightly too eccentric to gain the devotion and sympathy of their readers, but kids will be amused at their bizarre antics.