We’re all excited for Book two titled, ‘Miss Penny Dreadful and the Malicious Maze’. I also reckon The Beekeeper is going to do this one as a read aloud with The Smallest Bee (6). In my household, ‘Miss Penny Dreadful and the Midnight Kittens’ was read voraciously by The Small Bee (9), I read it aloud to ChickPea (11) and we chuckled heartily and enjoyed reading in an Old English tone. There’s a crescendo to a dramatic ending and leaves the reader wanting to slip straight into the next volume. Though sophisticated, Penny Dreadful is engaging and accessible, with gentle humour, whimsical illustrations, intriguing history and mystery elements. Our youngest readers deserve such rich and magical book offerings. Allison wondered what sort of eccentric person would be writing such things!Īllison Rushby is a masterful storyteller and I’m so pleased she now has a series for a younger audience. They were often sensationalised stories with odd plots and characters coming and going. Penny dreadfuls were very cheap serialised novels or comics that were popular in the mid to late 1800s. Fans of the Showtime supernatural drama, Penny Dreadful, were largely disappointed by the controversial and highly divisive series finale, which happened without prior warning disappointing as the finale was, it could have easily been fixed with one small change. The idea for this new series simmered away for Allison after she read an actual penny dreadful herself. The gorgeous illustrations by Bronte Rose Marando add to the atmosphere, with Allison loving the depictions of the naughty kittens! The sense of place and time is strong and transports young readers back to England in 1872. Don’t you want to live in a world like that too?Īuthor Allison Rushby was raised on a diet of English literature classics, and this shines through in much of her writing – particularly in this new series for readers 7+. I want to live in a world where astonishing things are possible, including bewitched kittens. ![]() Penny soon finds herself headed for Hampshire and a strange place called Mr Toddington’s Museum of the Curious and Absurd where bewitched kittens are said to have tea parties at midnight and mysteries need to be solved. Given her unusual occupation and penchant for the stranger things in life, Aunt Harriet has had limited interaction with Penny to date, but her parents appear to have packed up and left for Switzerland – and Aunt Harriet is in charge! Aunt Harriet writes penny dreadfuls, which Penny Pickering has been avidly (but illegally) collecting and reading for some time. ![]() All her dreams come true one day when her rather famous and scandalous authoress Aunt Harriet turns up (with monkey and publisher in tow) and asks Penny (or Penny Dreadful as she affectionately calls her) if she would like to join her on an adventure. At Miss Strickland’s School for Girls of an Enquiring Mind, Penny Pickering is forever in trouble for sketching in her notebook during class.
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