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b00kw0rms0fthew0rldunite's review
4.0
A charming tale of curiosity, mystery and friendship. I've never read a story that features a curio collector before and this one was a lovely tale. Definitely a children's book but it delighted me nonetheless. Thanks to the author and Netgalley for a temporary copy in exchange for an honest review.
amb0517's review
4.0
This was a really cute book. The title and cover drew me in immediately. It was a great plot. Not something I had come across before, I question whether or not there is enough substance to keep an older child entertained. But my second grader would love it.
bluewithstars's review
4.5
Another Barrington Stoke beauty. Eloise Williams has a fantastic story about a family travelling the world selling their finds. Money is running out for the family. What will happen to them?
srivalli's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
4.25
4.2 Stars
One Liner: Such a cute adventurous book
Digswell Water, 1896
Lily and Tom travel with Ma Hawker, collecting interesting items, displaying, and selling them to people for money. When Lily gets duped into buying a bag of useless items, she finds scrimshaw in it. Flora Meriweathe is desperate to find the missing scrimshaw to know more about her mother. However, someone else also wants this mysterious item and will go to any lengths to grab it. Can Lily and Tom help Flora in her quest?
The story comes in Lily’s first-person POV.
My Thoughts:
This is an adorable little story about 12-year-old Lily and her 10-year-old little brother Tom. Their characteristics are reversed. Lily is practical and handy with the tools, and Tom is a dreamer. I love Lily’s arc.
The story has adventure, mystery, danger, and intrigue but for the kiddos. This makes a cozy mystery for adults. Some may find it too mild and easily solved, but it should work well for the target audience (well, I think I can include myself in that category).
The book breaks stereotypes about women at varying levels. Be it Ma Hawker traveling alone with two kids or the other characters we meet towards the end, it puts women in assertive roles without making it preachy. At the same time, they aren’t flawless.
The illustrations are in black and white but very atmospheric. My favorite is the one in the graveyard. And, of course, I’m totally in love with Lily’s flowing tresses.
Being a short book, it packs quite a bit in less than 100 pages. While the beginning takes the time to set the stage and let readers meet the characters, the second half speeds by like a superfast train. This makes the climax a little rushed. The ending is perfect and can work as a lead for a sequel. I sure would love to read more adventures by the trio.
To summarize, The Curio Collectors is a lovely little book about the adventures of young nomadic travelers from the Victorian period. The theme is less common in fiction writing and makes a good choice for kids to learn more about a different era.
Thank you, NetGalley and Barrington Stoke, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley #TheCurioCollectors
Content Warnings
Minor: Death of parent
roshreviews's review
adventurous
fast-paced
4.0
In a Nutshell: An interesting children’s story set in the Victorian era. Has an adventurous mystery with three kids at the centre of it. Easy to read in terms of flow and language.
Story Synopsis:
1896. Digswell Water, UK. Lily (12) and Tom (10) work with Ma Hawker, travelling the country and displaying their amazing collection of curios, not all of which might be authentic. A part of Lily’s duties is to be on the lookout for new curios. On one such occasion, she is tricked into buying a useless bag of junk. But unknown to her, the bag contains a special scrimshaw, and someone dangerous is looking for it.
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Lily.
The two little protagonists – Lily and Tom – have very distinct personalities and yet they are caring towards each other. The book doesn’t include their backstory except to indicate that Ma Hawker took them in. The focus thus remains firmly on the curios and the incident connected to the scrimshaw.
You would assume Ma Hawker to be a cruel stepmother kind of figure, but she is written as a practical character, not gushing in her demonstrations of love but also not evil. Lily is the handy one, the climber of trees and the fixer of broken things. Plus points to the author for shattering the gender stereotype of girls/women in historical children’s fiction.
The only negative for me was that the story felt a bit rushed, especially in the second half. There is too much happening with a few pages, so there’s no depth to the proceedings. Children might not notice this.
For a book containing an evil man and a thrilling adventure, the writing is quite easy-going. The pace and the vocabulary are perfectly suited for the target age range of tweens.
I must add that Barrington Stoke books are always hi-lo (high interest, low ability), so the content is age appropriate but the vocabulary aims at a lower age group, thus making the book more inclusive to diverse reading abilities. (I guess the word ‘scrimshaw’ should be counted as an exception to this, but a book that can teach one new word to its little readers is always welcome.) Moreover, the books by this publishing house don’t shy away from difficult topics or scary themes. I love this dual approach of theirs – they clearly publish for children, but they don’t exclude any topic that might be considered kid-unfriendly as per popular opinion.
There are some cute B&W illustrations peppered throughout the book. These add well to the story. I liked how the illustrations had a rich look despite not being in colour. They were wonderfully detailed as well.
All in all, this is a quick, interesting and fun story that would appeal to young readers who love tales of adventure and mystery. Its 1890s setting and the nomadic lifestyle of its protagonists makes it an unusual book in contemporary children’s fiction.
4 stars.
My thanks to Barrington Stoke and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Curio Collectors”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
Story Synopsis:
1896. Digswell Water, UK. Lily (12) and Tom (10) work with Ma Hawker, travelling the country and displaying their amazing collection of curios, not all of which might be authentic. A part of Lily’s duties is to be on the lookout for new curios. On one such occasion, she is tricked into buying a useless bag of junk. But unknown to her, the bag contains a special scrimshaw, and someone dangerous is looking for it.
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Lily.
The two little protagonists – Lily and Tom – have very distinct personalities and yet they are caring towards each other. The book doesn’t include their backstory except to indicate that Ma Hawker took them in. The focus thus remains firmly on the curios and the incident connected to the scrimshaw.
You would assume Ma Hawker to be a cruel stepmother kind of figure, but she is written as a practical character, not gushing in her demonstrations of love but also not evil. Lily is the handy one, the climber of trees and the fixer of broken things. Plus points to the author for shattering the gender stereotype of girls/women in historical children’s fiction.
The only negative for me was that the story felt a bit rushed, especially in the second half. There is too much happening with a few pages, so there’s no depth to the proceedings. Children might not notice this.
For a book containing an evil man and a thrilling adventure, the writing is quite easy-going. The pace and the vocabulary are perfectly suited for the target age range of tweens.
I must add that Barrington Stoke books are always hi-lo (high interest, low ability), so the content is age appropriate but the vocabulary aims at a lower age group, thus making the book more inclusive to diverse reading abilities. (I guess the word ‘scrimshaw’ should be counted as an exception to this, but a book that can teach one new word to its little readers is always welcome.) Moreover, the books by this publishing house don’t shy away from difficult topics or scary themes. I love this dual approach of theirs – they clearly publish for children, but they don’t exclude any topic that might be considered kid-unfriendly as per popular opinion.
There are some cute B&W illustrations peppered throughout the book. These add well to the story. I liked how the illustrations had a rich look despite not being in colour. They were wonderfully detailed as well.
All in all, this is a quick, interesting and fun story that would appeal to young readers who love tales of adventure and mystery. Its 1890s setting and the nomadic lifestyle of its protagonists makes it an unusual book in contemporary children’s fiction.
4 stars.
My thanks to Barrington Stoke and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Curio Collectors”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
ljrinaldi's review
4.0
The curio collectors is a cute novel about two children living with a traveler, in the Victorian era. They go around England selling what they say are artifacts, but are usually junk dug up from the river.
They find a shell that has carvings in it (which they refer to as scrimshaw, although that is usually done in ivory or bone). They don't think anything of it, until two people want to buy it. One is a maid, and the other is a rather disgusting man who tries to break into their caravan.
Will the shell got to its rightful owner or will the bad guy get it. The nice thing is that it is a very simple plot, and you can get through the whole story in less than an hour.
Despite the light writing, you can still get involved in the story. Nicely told and done.
This is another excellent book in the series of hi-lo middle grade readers, where the reading is easy, but the story is suited for slightly older readers. This one was suitable for ages 9 and up but was reading level age 8.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
They find a shell that has carvings in it (which they refer to as scrimshaw, although that is usually done in ivory or bone). They don't think anything of it, until two people want to buy it. One is a maid, and the other is a rather disgusting man who tries to break into their caravan.
Will the shell got to its rightful owner or will the bad guy get it. The nice thing is that it is a very simple plot, and you can get through the whole story in less than an hour.
Despite the light writing, you can still get involved in the story. Nicely told and done.
This is another excellent book in the series of hi-lo middle grade readers, where the reading is easy, but the story is suited for slightly older readers. This one was suitable for ages 9 and up but was reading level age 8.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
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