Product Description

The Mennyms are a family of life sized rag dolls who live in a modest British town. Their forty year long secret threatens to be exposed when a distant relative of their landlord visits from Australia. "Good old-fashioned fantasy at its finest."-Publishers Weekly

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #683061 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Waugh's wonderfully eccentric debut bears comparison with Mary Norton's The Borrowers and Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting. The creations of a gifted seamstress, the title characters are "a whole, lovely family of life-size rag dolls" who inhabit a large old house in an English town. Some time after their maker's death, the reader is told, the Mennyms came to life and gradually developed a number of ingenious strategies for making their way in the ordinary human world. Waugh develops this whimsical premise with rigorous logic: the dolls can't eat or drink (but, with the exception of the philosophical blue doll Soobie, they all relish pretend meals); they can't be killed (though a good soaking is nearly fatal to rebellious Appleby); and they never grow older (Appleby celebrates her 15th birthday every July 4th). After four decades, however, their peculiarly static immortality has grown stale--Appleby, for instance, has been a surly adolescent for longer than her mother cares to remember. A letter from the lonely-seeming heir of the Mennyms' absentee landlord is the first of a series of events that triggers difficult but ultimately welcome changes. This poignant novel is good, old-fashioned fantasy at its finest. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-After Kate Penshaw's death, the family of rag dolls she created came to life and took over her house. They keep to themselves and venture outside only when well disguised. A threat to their existence comes in the form of a letter-an Australian relative has inherited Kate's house, and he plans to visit. However, all their worrying and preparations are for naught, as he turns out to be an invention of Appleby, a bored and rebellious teenaged Mennym. The family's routine is further rocked when Soobie, 16, finds an unassembled doll in the attic who turns out to be his twin sister. The characters are complex; Waugh does a fine job of bringing out not only their individual personalities, but also their collective traits. Through the pleasant screen of their daily life, readers will see the tragic side of their existence-their isolation, fear of discovery, struggle to balance the real and the pretend, and their inability to grow. They have memories of the past, but are frozen at a particular age-the baby will never turn one; Appleby will always be 15 and struggling with adolescence. This novel provides an opportunity to think about what it must be like to be an alien creature trying to blend into a human world.
Jane Gardner Connor, South Carolina State Library, Columbia
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Fans of The Borrowers or Sylvia Cassedy's Behind the Attic Wall have cause to celebrate this first novel about a family of lifesize rag dolls who reside modestly in an English neighborhood. From the first chapter--a letter that throws the unorthodox Mennyms into panic--Waugh constructs their world with near-flawless mastery. Singular characters with names like Appleby (a perpetually cheeky 15-year-old) or Nuova Pilbeam (twin sister of the ``only blue Mennym'') are deftly and unforgettably delineated. The Mennyms manage their affairs discreetly, earning wages (patriarch Sir Magnus writes articles while his wife Tulip knits sweaters for the fashionably elite) and keeping up the pretense of being ``real'' (though they never age) for 40 years, until Albert Pond of Australia writes to say that he's inherited their ample Victorian home and intends to visit. `` `If he ever finds out what we really are,' '' groaned Granpa, `` `I shudder to think what he might do.' '' The plot twists and turns around the issue of Albert--and the issue of what is real and what make-believe, yet still precious. There's plenty of material here for a sequel, a hope readers will surely embrace. (Fiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Review About the Mennyms.
I am a fourth grader and The Mennyms was suggested to me by my librarian. I read it and thought it was marvelous! I reccomend it to anyone who is interested in this series of books about a family of life-sized rag dolls. The charecters are Sir Magnus and Tulip, who are the grandparents, Vinetta and Joshua, who are the parents, Soobie and Pilbeam, who are the older twins, Appleby, who is a teenage girl, Poopie and Wimpey, who are the younger twins, Googles the baby, and her nanny Miss Quigley, who is the only non-member of the Mennym family but also a rag doll. I found the plot interesting and the charecters well discribed. I hope you read this book because it is fantastic!

Imaginative, Perceptive
This is one of the most imaginative books I've ever read and also one of the most psychologically astute. On the surface it appears to be a highly original and well-planned fantasy--live dolls coping in a flesh and blood world--but the reader soon finds herself propelled beyond the fantasy into the day to day living of a complex and engaging family. All of the Mennyms, no matter how faintly drawn, have individual and sympathetic characters. Within the context of fantasy, the family deals with age old issues: autonomy versus connection, real versus pretend, mothers and daughters, self-protection versus risk and the need for, as well as the fear of, change. Sylvia Waugh illustrates the provocative theory that fantasy is often the true purveyor of difficult truths and hard realities.

Recommendation: Buy it.

The Magnolia Bookworms give it a thumbs up!
This is a book review by the Magnolia Bookworms a book club of 5 girls ages 9-10. Chelsea: I liked this book because it had a great story. It also went into other adventures instead of just one. Alberta: I liked the book because it was well written and suspenceful. My favorite character was Soobie because he read so much and he didn't pretend. Alice: I did'nt like the book because it was very depressing and sad and it should have started out more exciting so more people would want to keep reading. Hannah: I did'nt like this book because rag dolls trying to be human was weird. Cati: I did like the book because it was very intresting with the rag dolls acting like real humans.My favorite charcter is Vinetta because she was very helpful making the rest of Pilbeam.