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Nov. 29th, 2014 06:10 pmThe first thing I did after getting back to my parents' for Thanksgiving was go hunt for some books I know I used to own and cannot find at any local library, come on, past self, why didn't you keep better track of your stuff!
...so I did not find the books, but while I was looking I turned up and reread Peppermints in the Parlor, the cutest little middle-grade Gothic the eighties ever turned out.
Emily Luccock is a Tragic Victorian Orphan who is kind of sad about her parents dying but perfectly willing to have a nice life with her aunt and uncle in their big fancy house.
HOWEVER! When she gets there, her terrified aunt gives her dire and mysterious warnings, her uncle is nowhere to be found, and the house is full of secret passageways and traumatized senior citizens!
The Evil Headmistress -- well, actually she's not a headmistress, just the owner of the senior citizens' home, but she fulfills every criterion of Evil Headmistress-itude so we may as well call her one anyway -- sets Emily to scrubbing floors on a starvation diet of gruel and stale bread. The other orphan scullery maid takes Emily's stuff, the senior citizens are too traumatized and intellectually starved to even attempt conversation when Emily comes to dust their rooms, and everything is terrible!
Fortunately, Emily befriends a plucky local fishmonger's son, who brings her nourishing fish syrup, encourages her to investigate the secret passageways, and helps her sneak kittens and intellectually engaging hobbies to the senior citizens. Eventually all the mysteries of the household are unraveled. Emily is reunited with her relatives, and, in a triumphant climax, the senior citizens get a cathartic chance to pelt their tormentors with peppermints. Happy ending for all!
Looking up the Amazon page just now reveals the existence of a sequel that did not exist at the age I was reading this book, but it seems to involve neither the senior citizens nor the nourishing fish syrup, so I'm not really sure what the point of it can possibly be.
...so I did not find the books, but while I was looking I turned up and reread Peppermints in the Parlor, the cutest little middle-grade Gothic the eighties ever turned out.
Emily Luccock is a Tragic Victorian Orphan who is kind of sad about her parents dying but perfectly willing to have a nice life with her aunt and uncle in their big fancy house.
HOWEVER! When she gets there, her terrified aunt gives her dire and mysterious warnings, her uncle is nowhere to be found, and the house is full of secret passageways and traumatized senior citizens!
The Evil Headmistress -- well, actually she's not a headmistress, just the owner of the senior citizens' home, but she fulfills every criterion of Evil Headmistress-itude so we may as well call her one anyway -- sets Emily to scrubbing floors on a starvation diet of gruel and stale bread. The other orphan scullery maid takes Emily's stuff, the senior citizens are too traumatized and intellectually starved to even attempt conversation when Emily comes to dust their rooms, and everything is terrible!
Fortunately, Emily befriends a plucky local fishmonger's son, who brings her nourishing fish syrup, encourages her to investigate the secret passageways, and helps her sneak kittens and intellectually engaging hobbies to the senior citizens. Eventually all the mysteries of the household are unraveled. Emily is reunited with her relatives, and, in a triumphant climax, the senior citizens get a cathartic chance to pelt their tormentors with peppermints. Happy ending for all!
Looking up the Amazon page just now reveals the existence of a sequel that did not exist at the age I was reading this book, but it seems to involve neither the senior citizens nor the nourishing fish syrup, so I'm not really sure what the point of it can possibly be.
