Cynthia and the Runaway Gazebo - Hardcover

Marston, Elsa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688102832 ISBN 13: 9780688102838

Publisher: Tambourine, 1992

Synopsis

Frail and delicate Cynthia, in need of some rest and relaxation, is sent by her parents to the country, where her gazebo is washed out to sea and is promptly stormed by a crew of ferocious buccaneers.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-3-- This exaggerated yarn about a sickly girl who rises to the occasion when captured by pirates will be enjoyed more by adults who fancy Gilbert and Sullivan than by young audiences. Frail Cynthia visits her Great-aunt Isabelle's country manor. When she admires the gazebo, the woman sheds a tear. Before they ran away to sea, her two young sons had loved to play in it. The next day at a garden party, a sudden storm forces the child and her guests into the gazebo, which is then lifted from its foundation and swept away. Cynthia suddenly becomes a feisty leader, and turns the pirates who seize them into friends. A merchant ship, pursued by the pirates, turns out to be a disguised man-of-war. Its captain recognizes the gazebo as the one in which he and his brother spent happy childhood hours. Miraculously the pirate captain discloses that he is Horatio's brother, Algernon, and all return home. Much of the mannered text inspires snickers. "I must be home for tea," a boy said, "Otherwise I get brutish." is a prime example. This preposterous story can only be compared to a comic operetta. Cynthia's sudden change from sickly to powerful and the pirates' conversion from fierce fighters to docile students are ridiculous, but fun. Illustrations, ink drawings filled in with subdued watercolors, add to the book's sense of fantasy. Figures are grotesque and flat, almost like cut-out dolls frozen into active positions. A touch of cross-hatching adds little dimension, but is reminiscent of old-fashioned lithographs. Certainly not for the literal-minded, but special children who imagine other times and places will enjoy stretching themselves to take in this burlesque adventure. --Nancy Seiner, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

The "frail and delicate" Cynthia demonstrates considerable pluck in this boisterous seafaring yarn. Sent off to her Great-aunt Isabelle's for a restorative dose of fresh air, the pale lass flushes with enthusiasm at the sight of a gazebo, which her aunt fondly recalls as the favorite playtime spot of her two sons, before "they ran away to sea, so many years ago." A sudden storm sends Cynthia and her croquet-party guests scurrying for shelter, but the buffeted gazebo casts adrift into the raging river. The hostess attempts to bring her petulant charges to safety by summoning a neighboring vessel, which turns out to be a pirate ship. Marston invests her heroine with the comic aplomb of a beribboned Pippi Longstocking, though both the story and its telling may be somewhat arch for young readers. The added spice of salty pirate jargon ("bloodthirsty blackguards") should prove amusing. Henstra's ink-and-watercolor illustrations, rendered primarily in pastels, also exude an urbanity that may be lost on youngsters. Still, the artwork enhances the wit of the preposterous voyage and depicts a suitably happy, oh-so-proper ending. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tambourine
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0688102832
• ISBN 13: 9780688102838
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Henstra Friso