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, ColumbiaCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
