LITERATURE: The Old Forest – The Little Cousins

This was good.  A young boy as first person narrator describes his rather spoiled life with his older sister, widowed father, and housekeeper as he and his sister manipulate the adults.  He is aware of his own flaws and in particular points them out in his sister as she tries to live up to the image of an older girl she envies and admires.  There is that Taylor knack of saying one thing and yet giving the reader an impression of something very different.  We wonder if the boy, in seeing what his sister is doing, is going to break away from the stereotypical rich kid and yet each of them surprise us with what they end up doing at a time when they have a chance to change.