A likely lad - Hardcover

Avery, Gillian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0001848100 ISBN 13: 9780001848108

Publisher: William Collins, 1971

Synopsis

Pressured by his father to leave school for a career he doesn't want, a nineteenth-century Manchester boy runs away and gains a new perspective on his future

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-A charming coming-of-age novel set in Edwardian England. The protagonist, Willy, is a boy whose father has great ambitions for him-a life of entrepreneurship, which will eventually lead to politics. Mr. Overs places the benefit of hard work in direct opposition to the value of a higher education, which is what Willy desires. Colloquial language and the issue of England's class struggle may be confusing to American readers; however, the plot will engage them. They will sympathize with Willy as he endures his snobby cousins; deals with his crazy, rich great aunt; survives a long and serious illness; and gets into trouble with his father. Avery instills the descriptions of the working-class neighborhoods of turn-of-the-century Manchester with an aura of reality. Her characters are fleshed out and original, and the narrow cobblestone streets she describes ring with the footsteps of thousands of factory workers. Parents have always had aspirations for their children, and in this novel a son learns that he can shape his future without destroying his father's dreams.
Lucinda Lockwood, Thomas Haney Secondary School, Maple Ridge,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Turn-of-the-century working-class England comes to life in this tale of an endearing and inquisitive boy. At six, Willy Overs, eldest son of a Manchester candy merchant, is marked as ``a likely lad'' when he defends his right to pick flowers in a public park. From that moment his father plans Willy's life, dreaming that he'll scale the corporate ladder and take a place among the city's celebrated men--and thereby win the competition between the Overs and their relations and rivals, the Sowters. But Willy doesn't share his father's fancy; he loves books and dreads his 13th birthday, when he must leave school and begin work at an insurance company. Larger-than-life characters and elaborate descriptions contribute to the classic feel of this gentle adventure, originally published in Britain in 1971. Like a Dickens protagonist, Willy stumbles into his fate with such disarming frankness that his escapades will make ``likely'' prospects for today's readers. This first US edition features appropriately humorous pencil illustrations. (Fiction. 10-12) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 1971
• ISBN 10: 0001848100
• ISBN 13: 9780001848108
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 223