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School Library Journal
Starred Review on February 1, 2013 | Preschool to Grade 4
PreS-Gr 3—Nelly May Nimble lives in a tiny house with her parents and her 12 brothers and sisters. One day she announces that it's time to earn her own keep, so she ventures off to the hilltop home of Lord Ignasius Pinkwinkle to hire out her services. Lord Pinkwinkle agrees with one condition; the master of the house has special names for things, and Nelly must use those names when she speaks to him. At first, Nelly obliges, addressing Lord...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Magazine
Reviewed on March 1, 2013
The brief and absurdist folktale "Master of All Masters" (found in Joseph Jacobs's English Fairy Tales), about an eccentric gentleman who insists on his own invented language, is a tempting story to tell, except for two problems. The tale's invented words (pondalorum for water, barnacle for bed) lack nonsense logic, at least in our time and place, and the punch line, a sort of party piece tongue-twister, leaves the listener wondering, "And then...?" In Jac...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
