The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

Or "A Series of Inconsequential Events"

For months I’ve been hearing all this hype about the new book by the always enjoyable Lois Lowry (The Giver, Number the Stars). So my love of young adult fiction plus my need to read a gazillion books led me to this one.

The Willoughbys is…endearing. It’s a funny, light-hearted tribute to/spoof of that great genre of Old-Fashioned Young Adult Orphan Fiction – but with one major (I’m assuming unintentional) difference. What makes all those Heidi, Pollyanna, Oliver Twist-types so appealing is the inevitable “change of heart” that a major character has as a result of his encounter with our winsome orphaned hero. But you have to have a heart in order to have a change of heart, and this is where Lowry fails. There is zero character development, no lessons are learned, nothing at the end of the book is any different than at the beginning of the book, other than the fact that now the four orphaned Willoughby siblings live in a different house.

It definitely has its good moments: a boy who believes he is fluent in German but actually just speaks English in a thick German accent, a charming Glossary and Bibliography in the back of the book, twin brothers named Barnaby A and Barnaby B whose parents resent them for being “redundant.” But if you’re looking for some quirky, “old-fashioned” young adult fiction, skip this one and go straight to Lemony Snicket. His Series of Unfortunate Events books have very much the same feel as The Willoughbys but with a much more well-rounded execution.

Final Rating: 3/10