A fun and silly read for kids of all ages

This is an extremely funny and fun book for young children. It is filled with just the right kinds of silliness to make them want to keep reading. It is, unbelievably, a debut book by Holly Grant. It is so well written, I fully expected to see a back list of children’s books waiting for me to read. It also appears to be the first in a series – a series that I fully intend to follow.

While the book was written for young children, I enjoyed it tremendously. I also plan to read it to aloud to the grandchildren and, when they are older, let them read it when they come over to visit. The story is about Anastasia McCrumpet, a pretty average girl with exactly 127 freckles. The book opens with a funeral which sets the tone for the rest of the book, Through wholly unpredictable means, Anastasia is whisked off to her (previously unknown) great aunties home to live. The aunties live in the house which used to be St. Agony’s Asylum for the Deranged, Despotic, Demented, and Otherwise Undesirable (That Is to Say, Criminally Insane), which in addition to being quite a mouthful to say, was a very creepy place for a fairly average girl of almost eleven to live.