May
21
“Bosco [the cat] could light fires by willpower. He could also fill food dishes and empty his favourite chair by the same useful force. His method was simple: He sat and gazed at the object to be controlled. it always worked; sooner or later, some human slave would come along and notice his implacable golden stare.
At this point Bosco would speak his only word.
“Woe!” he would say (mournfully), and the human slave would immediately and apologetically cry, “Oh, Bosco! Poor old Bosco! Have you been waiting long?”
And they would rush to obey his command.” Hilary McKay · Wishing for Tomorrow (2009)
At this point Bosco would speak his only word.
“Woe!” he would say (mournfully), and the human slave would immediately and apologetically cry, “Oh, Bosco! Poor old Bosco! Have you been waiting long?”
And they would rush to obey his command.” Hilary McKay · Wishing for Tomorrow (2009)
![Book review: Wishing for Tomorrow, by Hilary McKay (2009)
Remember when I posted this a few months ago? Well, I finally read it! And it lacks the magic and the timelessness, granted, but I was glad all the same to be back at Miss Minchin’s and follow the adventures of Ermengarde, Lottie and all the others.
I had never read anything by Hilary McKay before, but when I looked around the Interwebs to get readers’ opinions on this book, I found that many said that they would have been horrified if anyone else had attempted to write the sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, and that they wre glad that it was McKay who decided to undertake this perilous task. So I went and bought it, with confidence.
Now let me tell you a word about the cover. You can’t see very well on the picture, but I guarantee you that when you have the real thing in front of you it is beautiful. It was made by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini for the McElderry American edition.
The book itself is not, as I’ve said, amazing, but it is atmospheric, witty and funny. It is centered on Ermengarde and also deals quite a lot with Lottie and Lavinia. McKay does a great job of humanising the latter as well as Miss Minchin, whose establishment Sara’s departure leaves shaken and weak.
Wishing for Tomorrow respects the integrity of all the characters created by Burnett (except when it talks about Sara’s brown skin, when it seems quite clear from reading A Little Princess that Sara, though having lived in India, is white, with a Frenchwoman for a mother and a father named Crewe…). And it introduces new ones as well, among them Bosco the cat and the new scullery maid, Alice.
Alice is a symbol of the shift in perspective implemented by McKay: where Becky was submissive and worked her hands to the bone, Alice knows her worth as a worker, refuses to sleep in the attic and do more than implied in her job description. She is also neither afraid of nor impressed by the young ladies she works for, and is quite willing to treat them just as she treated her younger sisters back in Epping.
This is one of the new elements brought in by Hilary McKay focusing the book towards modernity and a more modern audience. Another example of that is the theme of higher education for girls and women. While some people would argue that it is in contradiction with the tone of the original, the 1900s definitely were a time for social change.
The book, however, lacks what made A Little Princess very dear to me: the lesson in resilience and non-violence that Sara is, the idea that reading and imagination are key to a better life, the fact that what is called childishness is to be cherished and that you can change other people’s lives through kindness, selflessness and understanding. But then, I suppose what made A Little Princess so special was the character of Sara — and she only makes a brief physical appearance in this sequel.
Still, all in all, Wishing for Tomorrow is a quick, good read for adults and children alike.
My rating: 3/5.
[Cross-posted to Goodreads]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3z0f4P37q1qfipiso1_250.jpg)
