Floors

Floors (Floors #1)

by Patrick Carman

3 stars

261 pages

Published Sept. 1, 2011 by Scholastic Press

I read this book with my 8-year-old son as a bedtime story over the course of a few weeks. He absolutely loved this book!

He loved how the main character - Leo - went on a sort of scavenger hunt and discovered secret floors in the hotel where he lives.

My son also liked the minor robot character - Blop. He thought he was hilarious.

As an adult reading this, I can see flaws in the story and writing - mostly the blatant mirroring to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - but this does not translate into a bad book for children. Children have the ability to just enjoy a book and not analyze like adults do.

More than the book itself, I enjoyed the chance I had to read with my son. I will be checking out Number 2 in the series, because he's asked for it already. Yay!

Below Stairs

Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey"

by Margaret Powell, Leigh Crutchley (Ghost writer)

4 stars

212 pages

Published Jan. 3, 2012 by St. Martin's Press (first published 1968) 

 

After reading Austen and Gaskell and watching Downton Abbey, etc., I've begun to wonder about the lives of servants. They play such a huge part in the lives of the upper-class - but always in the background, never noticed. Servants cook, clean, garden, raise children, do hair, serve the food, welcome guests - so much stuff!! But rarely, if ever are they even mentioned.
This book, "Below Stairs," gives a fantastic glimpse into the lives of those in service and the undeniable inequality and injustice of the "master and servant" system. Though as a mother, I sometimes feel I am still a part of that - my kids being the masters and I the servant. Hmph.
As this memoir was written by a fairly "modern" woman (she was born in 1907), it would be really interesting to read a memoir of a servant who served back in the 1700s or 1800s, to see if the same dissatisfaction was still apparent.
All in all, a good book. One that I recommend. It's funny, sad, and eye-opening.