Aunt Maria
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4.8 • 9 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
In Cranbury-on-Sea Aunt Maria rules with a rod of sweetness far tougher than iron and deadlier than poison. Strange and awful things keep happening in Cranbury. Why are all the men apparently gray-suited zombies? Why do all the children—if you ever see them—behave like clones? And what has happened to Mig's brother, Chris? Could gentle, civilized Aunt Maria, with her talk and daily tea parties, possibly have anything to do with it?
Diana Wynne Jones once again has created a fantastic, magical world. Her brilliant storytelling and wonderful sense of humor totally involve the reader in the lives of a lovable young heroine and a villainess readers will love to hate.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After their father disappears, Mig and her brother, Chris, go with their mother to visit Aunt Maria, an elderly tyrant who is as demure as she is iron-willed. Upon arriving, Mig and her mother discover that they are expected to keep house for Aunt Maria, as well as provide freshly baked cakes for her daily tea parties. These unwelcome chores do not prevent Mig from noticing that there's something very strange going on in sleepy Cranbury-on-Sea. Aunt Maria and her cronies are the only residents with any will of their own--their husbands and sons are zombie-like, and all the children are locked away in a huge orphanage on the outskirts of town. When Chris is transformed into a wolf, Mig must rescue him by unraveling the twisted secret that guides the lives of the villagers. Wry observations about the oddities of family life, along with plenty of spine-tingling spookiness, will keep readers glued to every turn of the labyrinthine plot. In the tradition of her novels The Ogre Downstairs and Eight Days of Luke , Jones takes the ordinary world and steeps it in an intoxicating witch's brew. Ages 12-up.
