A couple of weeks ago I read a delightfully funny book called The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. It had me laughing out loud in the lunchroom and I had to tell all of my co-workers about what was making me laugh so hard. Books like this are few and far between, I believe, and it is always fun to find one.

The Willoughbys is a satire on all of those old old classic children’s books we all know and love. It is about an “old fashioned family” who likes to do “old fashioned” things. And they like to remind themselves of this all the time. The have parents who decided one day that they don’t like their children and so decide to find a way to get rid of them. The Children catch on to this and they decide to figure out a way to “get rid of” the parents. Luckily they have a cape-wearing nanny to take care of them AND there is a rich old bachelor down the street who saves the day at the end.

As you can see Lowry pulls out all of the children’s lit tropes. There is even an abandoned baby on a doorstep.

This book is even more fun for me because I decided this summer to read all of those old classics (because I never have and am ashamed to admit that as a children’s librarian). Reading these books having The Willoughbys in the back of my mind is a treat.

So go to the library and check it out! It’s a very quick read. It took me about an hour to get through it. And let me know what you think!