Lucie Babbidge's House by Sylvia Cassedy

But she did! Behold, Lucie Babbidge's House! This premise of the book is different enough from Behind the Attic Wall, but the subject matter and style are similar enough that they begin to form a body of work. Cassedy would have written other children's books about various ghostly dolls and unloved, unappreciated orphaned girls. I picked this up because as a young person I was a little bit obsessed with Sylvia Cassedy's other fine work, Behind the Attic Wall. What happened to you? Where the fuck did you go? I don't know of any other book (much less, a children's book!) which sets up the rules and knocks them down so completely and with so little judgement.

You can spend your time in the circle of light writing a letter to the world or you can spend it collecting the sun in a jar to use later. You can lose your house and your family and your entire life, and still what's in you can rise to the top like a bean sprouting in a cup. What is real and what is imaginary meld together, as they do, and Cassedy says: It doesn't matter. And Lucie's life goes on below anyone's notice. The adults walk around making noises and being difficult, but the real life goes on below their notice. The little differences come out and recede again. The children in Lucy's school have names and personalities, sometimes but again and again they act as a pack, names and differences falling away in a gaggle of speech that runs down the page without any attempt at differentiation. As an adult, I prefer this to Behind The Attic Wall both are lonesome and sad and eerie, but Lucie and her house are somethin' else.Ĭassedy is brilliant.

Lucie Babbidge's House by Sylvia Cassedy