The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

The Willoughbys is a delightful parody of an "old-fashioned" story that features cruel parents, plucky children and a resourceful nanny. The four children of the Willoughby family wish they were orphans as their parents ignore and mistreat them so. When the parents decide to take a world trip and sell the house out from under the children, they have to use their resourcefulness to work things out. The book is full of references to "old-fashioned" children and stories a la Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna, etc. After the obligitory happy ending, Lowry provides a bibliography of "books of the past that are heavy on piteous but appealing orphans, ill-tempered and stingy relative, magnanimous benefactors, and transformations wrought by winsome children." Although I enjoyed it greatly, I felt like I might have missed some of the references to some of said books. A Glossary hilariously defines words that frequently show up in such works like auspicious, irascible, lugubrious, and many more. The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.