I started this book, not really knowing what to expect about the story itself, but looking forward to it, because I had so enjoyed The Westing Game. So, I was actually quite excited to read Figgs and Phantoms.Īlas. It was wonderfully complex and the characters were simply delightful. I read The Westing Game several years ago, and I really enjoyed it. Four years later, she won the Newbery Award for The Westing Game. This book was originally reviewed on my blog, Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing.įiggs and Phantoms by Ellen Raskin won the Nebery Honor in 1975. This edition has lovely illustrations from Raskin. But she was such a good writer, she should have trusted herself more. It's almost as if Raskin was ashamed to tell a straight story about how children deal with loss. Too bad about the contrived names and the punning. There are allusions to songs that were on the "Hit Parade" in the 1930s and 1940s and laudatory references to the works of Joseph Conrad - not that Conrad was a bad writer, necessarily, but how many people outside of graduate literature classes read Conrad anymore? I'm not sure most undergrads read Conrad-except for Heart of Darkness and that seems old, old, old now. Raskin's fond of making little inside jokes and puns on pop culture, but most of the pop culture references are sadly outdated. I wish Raskin hadn't bothered with the silly names "Figgs" and "Newtons." It detracts from the story, which is very profound, bordering on the philosophical-about a girl's coming to terms with the death of her favorite uncle.
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