The interrupted tale

*Starred Review* Happily, the mysteries deepen at Ashton Place in this fourth volume in the Incorrigible Children series. Let us recap: the incorrigibles are three children raised by wolves but under the care of Lord Ashton, with Miss Penelope Lumley serving as their governess. Odd things happen at Ashton place, including Lord Fredrick's propensity to howl at the moon. But here the action shifts to Penny's alma mater, Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, which is in distress. A new board of directors wishes to change everything, including calling it the School for Miserable Girls. Can Penny help halt this disastrous turn of events? In this book, we come to that part in a series where one cannot really join in the fun without having read the previous books. And there is much fun to be had as the incorrigibles—Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia—entangle themselves in the Swanburne world. Family mysteries become more mysterious, and chickens learn to dance. Once again delightful wordplay and a plot that snakes itself around a suspicious family tree add to the deliciousness. It looks as if one more book should answer questions, but there are quite a lot of them. Readers will wait eagerly to learn where the children came from, to whom they are related, and why Penny must continue to color her hair that deadly brown. Hmmm. To be illustrated. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This series has amassed a large coterie of fans who will be eagerly looking to see how everything comes together. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

Gr 4–6—In Wood's continuing comic-gothic series, nanny Penelope Lumley is called back to the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females to deliver a speech at the Celebrate Alumnae Knowledge Exposition, and she takes her three wolfish charges along. They find things much changed from Penelope's pleasant descriptions of the institution that was so instrumental in forming her character and philosophy. The Board of Directors has experienced something along the lines of a hostile takeover. Any enjoyment of life on the part of the poor, bright females is being squelched. It doesn't take long for Penelope to suspect that Judge Quinzy, who now heads the Board, is actually the supposedly deceased father of Lord Ashton and that he is after a book that may hold clues about the mysterious curse of the Ashtons. Readers learn that the three incorrigible children are not the only wolfish humans in the series and also a fair amount about poetic feet-especially iambic pentameter. It is all great fun and delightfully complicated-an essential purchase for libraries owning the previous three titles.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY [Page 99]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Miss Penelope Lumley assuages the disappointments of her sixteenth birthday by accepting an invitation to speak at her former school, the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, which will be closed if she cannot prove the academic progress of her incorrigible charges.

A latest entry in the award-nominated series that includes The Mysterious Howling finds a heartbroken Miss Penelope Lumley assuaging the disappointments of her 16th birthday by accepting an invitation to speak at her former school, which will be closed if she cannot prove the academic progress of her incorrigible charges. 50,000 first printing.

For fans of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events and Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society comes the fourth book in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, the acclaimed and hilarious Victorian mystery series by Maryrose Wood.In The Interrupted Tale, Miss Penelope Lumley receives an invitation to speak at the annual Celebrate Alumnae Knowledge Exposition (or CAKE) at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. Optoomuchstic as ever, Penelope hopes to give her CAKE talk, see some old friends, and show off the Incorrigible children to Miss Mortimer, but instead she finds her beloved school in an uproar.And when Penelope is asked by the Swanburne Academy board of trustees to demonstrate the academic progress of her three wolfish students so the board can judge the true worth of a Swanburne education, the future of her alma mater'and of her job as governess to the Incorrigibles'hangs in the balance.

For fans of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events and Trenton Lee Stewart’s Mysterious Benedict Society comes the fourth book in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, the acclaimed and hilarious Victorian mystery series by Maryrose Wood.In The Interrupted Tale, Miss Penelope Lumley receives an invitation to speak at the annual Celebrate Alumnae Knowledge Exposition (or CAKE) at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. Optoomuchstic as ever, Penelope hopes to give her CAKE talk, see some old friends, and show off the Incorrigible children to Miss Mortimer, but instead she finds her beloved school in an uproar.And when Penelope is asked by the Swanburne Academy board of trustees to demonstrate the academic progress of her three wolfish students so the board can judge the true worth of a Swanburne education, the future of her alma mater—and of her job as governess to the Incorrigibles—hangs in the balance.