Saturday, February 07, 2015

A Recipe for Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Ingredients: Smugglers, Role Playing Games, power outage, Adoption, ghosts, Christmas vacation week, Strangers forced together during a winter storm.
Mix stealthily. Add hot chocolate and stir. Now you've got Greenglass House by Kate Milford!
This book has so many themes and ideas, it is good for anyone. Readers bring their own experiences and knowledge to what they read, and from the many reviews I've read it's no more evident than with this book. Everyone loves it,
but they all focus on different elements, some saying it's about adoption, others about lost love, and still others about a community.
Greenglass House is an inn run by a family. For the days around Christmas no guests are scheduled, which is great because Milo, the owners' son has plans to relax, and there's a big snowstorm coming. On his first evening, while  lounging in front of the Fire, Milo is startled by the bell ringing. As they are settling in this guest, it rings again. It keeps up all night until they have a mixed bag of guests staying on all the floors. Over the next few days the snowed-in guests get to know each other by telling stories in the evenings. When a series of petty
thefts occur, Milo and the cook's daughter play detective through a role playing game. Of course, in the end the crimes are solved, the history of each individual is clear as well as why they all showed up on the same night.
I got this book from my public library where they have it shelved as an adult book, but most places are calling it a kids' book. Some elements of the story, such as the wacky character names and eccentricities and the mystery remind me of a favorite book from my childhood that I still re-read every few years, The Westing Game. Because it came from the library I am counting it toward my 50 library books challenge at Snagged @ the Library from Geeky Bloggers Book Blog and the Book :Nympho.This is my first book for 2015, which makes me feel very positive for new books this year! Do you remember your first book of the year?
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1 comment:

  1. LoryFebruary 22, 2015 at 11:39 AM

    I read this because it was one of the finalists for the SF middle grade category of the Cybils awards. I enjoyed (almost) all of them but this was one of my favorites! Interesting that your library shelved it as an adult book -- I would definitely recommend it for adults as well, but I think kids should have it available to them. Maybe a mistake?

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