The Children of Green Knowe | Lucy M. Boston

Time for a classic children’s story.

The Children of Green Knowe was first published in 1954. Lucy M Boston published this series of delightful stories about her old family home.

I say delightful and mean it in an Enid Blyton, ye-olde-worlde charm kind of way. A story full of imagination, simple pleasures and family history.

Tolly’s great grandmother isn’t a witch, but both she and her old house, Green Knowe, are full of a very special kind of magic. There are other children in the house – children who were happy there centuries before. Running around Green Knowe’s moat, gardens and mysterious rooms, Tolly slowly discovers them, their toys and animals, and their wonderful stories . . .

I’m not quite sure if you could really call it a time slip novel – it’s more like a gentle ghost story for the lonely child inside of all of us. After surviving the truly frightening yew tree in A Monster Calls, the Green Noah was a pussycat by comparison.

This would be a lovely read-aloud story for the family to enjoy together…and thanks to modern technology you can watch the 1980’s BBC episodes on YouTube (link below).

There are three children: Toby, who rides the majestic horse Feste; his mischievous little sister, Linnet; and their brother, Alexander, who plays the flute. The children warmly welcome Tolly to Green Knowe… even though they’ve been dead for centuries.

But that’s how everything is at Green Knowe. The ancient manor hides as many stories as it does dusty old rooms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdhiI8XmJQI (episode 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReaDW0OyGBc&feature=related (episode 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkuMCRq9oP4&feature=related (episode 3)

L. M. Boston’s thrilling and chilling tales of Green Knowe, a haunted manor deep in an overgrown garden in the English countryside, have been entertaining readers for half a century.

There are three children: Toby, who rides the majestic horse Feste; his mischievous little sister, Linnet; and their brother, Alexander, who plays the flute. The children warmly welcome Tolly to Green Knowe… even though they’ve been dead for centuries.

But that’s how everything is at Green Knowe. The ancient manor hides as many stories as it does dusty old rooms.

And the master of the house is great-grandmother Oldknow, whose storytelling mixes present and past with the oldest magic in the world.

• 1The Children of Green Knowe (1954)
• 2The Chimneys of Green Knowe (1958)
• 3The River at Green Knowe (1959)
• 4A Stranger at Green Knowe (1961)
• 5An Enemy at Green Knowe (1964)
• 6The Stones of Green Knowe (1976)