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seespotrun2008 wrote:So what do people think of this book? So far I have read 7 chapters. It is racist. I do like the moors. Very Emily Bronte! The way that she writes is nice, kind of flowing. The story reminds me somewhat of the Chronicles of Narnia because of the way that she describes the mystery. It has more of an adventure feel than a mystery. I was bothered by this line:

"She had begun to wonder why she had never seemed to belong to anyone even when her father and mother had been alive. Other children seemed to belong to their fathers and mothers, but she had never seemed to really be anyone's little girl. She had had servants, and food and clothes, but no one had taken any notice of her. She did not know that this was because she was a disagreeable child; but then, of course, she did not know she was disagreeable. She often thought that other people were, but she did not know that she was so herself."

I would say that she is not to blame for the neglect that her parents were responsible for and that perhaps one of the reasons that she was the way she was was because of that neglect.

There is one point where the author talks about this somewhat: "

"I'm lonely," she said. She had not known before that this was one of the things which made her feel sour and cross. She seemed to find it out when the robin looked at her and she looked at the robin. "

I like Mary's growth in the book. She goes from someone who does not have relationships to someone who starts building relationships and I like that. So what do other people think?

I agree, and I was very disturbed by her parents neglect. Surely I would have been a very angry and contrary child if I was treated in such a way. I can tell you there is nothing worse than a child that gets everything that they want, and is never given any guidance and moral training!

Hello everyone. I am sorry to join in the discussion so late (again).

quote farmgirl:-

I agree, and I was very disturbed by her parents neglect. Surely I would have been a very angry and contrary child if I was treated in such a way.

I have been reading these posts about the first three chapters with interest. I can understand Mary's grumpiness, not because she was intrinsically a bad-tempered and unloving/unattractive child, but I expect she would be just 'angry' because her parents 'ignored' her. It is much more infuriating for parents to be indifferent to a child, than for them to actually dislike it, because in order to truly dislike a child, one would first have to give it some consideration. These parents do not appear to have paid this poor child any notice at all and she has no siblings and so, of course she is lonely. I bet if a child like this had siblings, they would have paid attention to one another and she would then have learned how to share her affection. And I expect she would have then shown some love and affection for her Ayyah. Certainly, there are many cases, in biography as well as fiction where children have a real 'love' for the surrugate mother.

Our own Queen and her sister Princess Margaret seem to have had a very warm and affectionate relationship with their Nanny, Crawfie.

I think I felt the lack of warmth towards her Ayyah as distressing as I found the lack of interest of the parents.

I rather think that it is 'indifference' more than outright 'dislike' which causes us to freeze up emotionally.

Penny