Caddy Ever After by Hilary McKay

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After Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, and Permanent Rose comes the book that I so hope will not be the last in the Casson series. This one switches points of view regularly, so that the "crowd of kids" effect in the earlier books is now compounded by a crowd-of-points-of-view effect. The only voice I found it a bit hard to follow was that of Indigo, who is so quiet that it is almost as if the narration is temporarily in the 3rd person. It could be an ending point for McKay, since Caddy leaves home in search of Michael....

Rose is, as usual, unforgettable. She is absolutely and unabashedly herself, in a way that those of us with any manners at all can only dream of being. Here are a few of the quotes I liked best from the book:

-- "'Valentine's cards are supposed to be speical,' said Saffron. 'You can hardly call them special if you send them off in dozens.'
'This is how I do special,' explained Rose."

-- 'Last year,' said Rose smugly, 'I got nineteen.'
'You got nineteen,' said Saffron, 'because your class made Valentine's Day cards fro art and all the boys sent the ones they made to you! Some of them sent two. That's the only reason you got nineteen.'
'It was still nineteen though,' said Rose. 'So.'"

(I laughed out loud, and then thought of my own habit of quantifying "love" as though a certain number of "good" or "bad" interactions in a week, or a number of stresses or gifts, as though it adds up to "love" or "not love." When that's not right at all. Love can be the final "So." No counting required)

--"So Sarah uses a wheelchair to get about. Actually, she uses a lot of wheelchairs because her family are rich adn her mother is always finding new models that are lighter, or easier to fold, or safter, or something or other. Adn the day they bring out a solar powered, micro-chipped-so-the-occupant-is-never-lost, weight free, totally invisible model that allows the owner unrestricted movement in every direction, which a special happiness function that is permanently switched on, that day, Sarah's mother will stop buying wheelchairs for Sarah."
(Oh the wish for safe keeping)

--"'Start giving anything away,' Tom says, 'and sure as you know it, sooner or later the weirdos will show up.'"
(I had an email from England yesterday, someone named Rory who has enjoyed my Silly Goose puppet. So welcome, weirdos, to the blog!)

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