When Mischief Came to Town

Starred review from October 19, 2015
“We are told to be mature and behave, and for some silly reason, we believe this means that we can no longer have fun. We forget how to laugh, how to yell, how to run, and worst of all, how to delight in each other’s company.” Thank goodness, then, for Inge Maria Jensen, the “spirited and jolly” heroine of this delightful tale from Australian author Nannestad, about a Danish orphan rediscovering joy after loss. Life in her grandmother’s quiet village is nothing like what Inge Maria knew in Copenhagen, but with the help of Grandmother (who has a tendency toward mischief herself), a brood of lively farm animals, and an imagination bolstered by the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, the 10-year-old soon has the neighbors talking—and eventually laughing along with her. The rural, early-20th-century setting and many of the characters hark back to classic stories like Anne of Green Gables, but Inge Maria’s voice has a contemporary edge that makes for an easier but no less pleasurable read. Readers can only hope for more of her happy mischief and genuine heart. Ages 10–12.

Starred review from October 1, 2015
Irrepressible Inge Maria has been sent to live with her grandmother on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, after her mother's death. It's easy to see the influence of Anne of Green Gables, although this effort is aimed at a younger audience than the classic's. Good-hearted Inge gets into plenty of unintentional (and some deliberate, mischievous) trouble. Through her impetuosity, she gradually alters the drab lives of the adults surrounding her. Humor infuses the story. Traveling by fishing boat to the island, 10-year-old Inge is wedged between a hungry goat and angry, caged geese. After she dozes off, the goat eats one of her braids. Her stern, seemingly unfriendly grandmother knits her a hat to conceal the damage. Under Inge's influence, a warm ebullience gradually emerges in the older woman. Deliciously evocative language peppers the tale: describing an especially humorless neighbor, Inge says, "Her piercing stare slips down her long nose, lands on my head, then slides all the way to my toes." Australian author Nannestad artfully uses Hans Christian Andersen tales to illuminate Inge's painful grief over both the death of her mother and the loss of her familiar, past life. The 1911 era and the distinctive island setting are fully realized; even her grandmother's farm animals blithely play a role. This heartwarming and richly engaging tale explores grief and the sustaining support of humor with an abundance of love. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

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September 1, 2015

Gr 3-5-This moving story quickly pulls in readers as they meet Inge Maria, a young girl traveling from her beloved Copenhagen to a small island village to live with her seemingly stern grandmother. Inge Maria adjusts to her new living situation, but instead of falling into the mundane life of Bornholm, she instead begins infusing the sleepy town and its people with a new sense of life and mischief that was sorely missing. Laughter begins to take hold of the community as the young girl with such lively spirit defies her stern teacher, who believes girls shouldn't be rowdy or expressive, and befriends the rowdiest kids around. Inge Maria and her grandmother, Dizzy, grow together and learn how to move forward as a new kind of family, and the book conveys a soft and warming message that even in sadness, you don't have to lose yourself. The theme of loss is subtle, though the narrative touches on the deeper questions that arise in the aftermath of the death of a parent and the subsequent pain and changes that follow. VERDICT A truly touching story that belongs in most middle grade collections.-Ashley Prior, Lincoln Public Library, RI

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2015
Grades 3-5 *Starred Review* A shipboard goat has just devoured one of Inge Maria's braids when she lands on a remote island off the coast of Denmark and meets her stern-looking grandmother for the first time. It's not an auspicious beginning to the young orphan's new life. Or is it? Much is not what it seems in Australian author Nannestad's endearing chapter book. It's a sweet, old-fashioned narrative, whose time frame is never stated but rather implied by wagons lumbering up the road, bloomers flapping on a clothesline, and modern technology lacking. Contemporary readers will nevertheless take delight in the mischief Inge Maria creates as she meets the island's denizens and struggles to fit in. The still-grieving child, while trying to be brave in the face of her mother's death, notices that her grandmother is mourning, too. And though her grandmother appears stiff at first, it soon becomes evident that the old woman may not be as averse to mischief as she seems. Rounding out the novel are a schoolmate with a secret loss of his own, a rebellion over girls not being allowed to run during recess, and an ill-fated nap in a herring shed, resulting in a yarn too good to pass up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2016
Recently orphaned Inge moves from Copenhagen to live with her (seemingly) grumpy grandmother on a tiny Danish island in 1911. She finds Grandmother's barn full of animals to be strange but entertaining: before long she's had a kicking contest with the donkey, injured the turkey, and broken a basket of eggs. Repressive teaching methods at school, however, almost do her in. Matters come to a head when she cuts off her one remaining plait (the other had early on been eaten by a goat), joins in the boys' games, defies the schoolmaster, and runs off to hide in a herring smokehouse. ( What are you all gawking at? she asks the hundreds of herring strung up therein. Haven't you ever seen a girl with no hair? ) Nannestad strings together a series of buoyant, imaginatively outrageous adventures peppered with allusions (both reverent and irreverent) to Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. Although the novel is comic in tone, sober emotional moments interlace the hilarity as Inge comes to terms with her mother's death and as she and her grandmother begin to express their love for each other. The time-honored trope of lively orphan thaws cold adult hearts is the story's undercurrent. deirdre f. baker

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)