It's a dynamic that's familiar to most people, but not often captured so well in an adventure like this book. Max is just ten years old, but hyper-intelligent, so the very proud Lucia is often upstaged by him, which just makes her act even more haughty. Otto doesn't speak, but communicates with a secret sign language he developed with Lucia. Each of the siblings' personalities seemed molded by their siblings.

The relationship between the siblings is another of this book's strong suits.

If I were more industrious I'd quote a long passage from page 87 that illustrates how great they are, but I'm not feeling industrious, so you're just going to have to read the book. It has great flow, but can be broken up by asides about the writing of the story itself (very Series of Unfortunate Events-if you didn't like those books, you probably won't like this). No one can stop you from guessing though.' It's pretty easy to guess who the narrator is, but it's also really fun that the story is told in both third and first person. We're told in the beginning that one of the Hardscrabble siblings is writing the story, but can't say who it is: 'They said it's because the story belongs to all three of us, and I suppose they're right, but it seems unfair since I'm doing all the work. I will not give away any more plot, which is quite twisty, but I will go on a little about why I loved this so much.įirst and foremost, the narration is outstanding. Unable to reach their father, they decide to seek out their mysterious Great-Aunt Haddie in a town called Snoring-by-the-Sea. Only it turns out their cousin isn't in London and they are stranded. Then one day their father has to go on one of his portrait-painting trips and leaves the kids with their cousin in London. It's been long years since anyone's seen her and the Hardscrabbles have precious few memories of her. But no one really knows what happened to the mother. These kids are outcasts in their hometown of Little Tunks because their mother disappeared and the whole town suspects Otto killed her and their father buried her in the backyard. This is the story of the three Hardscrabble siblings: Otto, Lucia, and Max. I wanted it to be longer, or at least be the start of a series, but I believe it's just an awesome little standalone gem I'll have to reread soon and often. And it's over too soon! The Kneebone Boy straight charmed the crap out of me. It's Lemony Snicket and Roald Dahl and dare I say a touch of the ol' J.K.

The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter