Welcome to KIWIreviews - product reviews
•  click here to return to the homepage  •
Welcome visitor.Join us or log in
  YOU ARE HERE : Home > Categories > Books > Kids - General > The Abominables
  ProdID: 4656 - The AbominablesAuthor:Eva Ibbotson Product Score: 9.1 
The Abominables

Price : $19.00
Supplier :
Available : August 2013

A family of yetis arrive in England in Eva Ibbotson's posthumous children's adventure. High in the Himalayan mountains the daughter of an English earl is kidnapped by a huge hairy monster. His motherless children need help. Many years later, Agatha Farlingham has raised a yeti family with upright morals and impeccable manners.

But when their secret existence is discovered, the yetis must leave their idyllic valley. Two brave children hatch a daring plan to smuggle them across the globe to Agatha's historic mansion. Hilarious disasters ensue as the yetis meet the outside world - but a terrible shock awaits them at Farley Towers...
Price
Value for Money
ReReadability
Personal Choice
mizim   Review #9396 - Dated: 28th of August, 2013
  Author: mizim

The Abominables is such a delightful book to read and I don't find that often with books. It starts when Agatha Farlingham is taken in the middle of the night by Father Yeti who needs help raising his children, despite her initial fear she soon realises that Yeti’s are gentle creatures and strict vegetarians (good for my children who have many vegetarian family members).

Deciding to stay Agatha teaches the Yeti’s how to talk, read and most importantly manners. As time passes further family members join and all is quite well until they are found by a couple of children. Agatha, upon finding out that her beloved yeti's are no longer safe, asks the children to help the yeti's (and a yak who is in love with one of the yeti's joins in) to get to a safe haven.

This book feels more like it was made of several short stories that are all interlinked, but this doesn't hurt the book and makes it more of a fun read. The hope and the love in this unconventional family is wonderful, and of course, the big surprise at the end of it all (don't worry, no spoilers).

I highly recommend this book, it is well worth a read and I shall be loaning this out to my mother, grandmother, brother and a friend or two as well as reading it to my children.

Price
Value for Money
ReReadability
Personal Choice
Jopukeko   Review #9350 - Dated: 25th of August, 2013
  Author: Jopukeko

I have always been fascinated by the Yeti or Abominable Snowman so when I found a children's chapter book about them I had to read it. This book is definitely fiction and as an adult it was hard to read without picking holes in the totally preposterous plan to move a family of yeti from the Himalayan Mountains to an estate in England lead by a child.

It is interesting to note that the author Eva Ibbotson died in 2010 and the book wasn't published until 2012. There is no mention of the book was finished by anyone else so I am assuming she had completed in before she passed. Although this was written for children there are several comments throughout about the wisdom of elders and the elderly dying.

The book is targeted at children with the interest and reading level of an 8 to 11 year old. It is never mentioned what age the children in it are but I assume they were in this age range too. The six yeti in the story all have distinctive personalities and the illustrations of them throughout the book are gorgeous line drawings. They are very humanised and trained with manners of the British upper class.

I enjoyed reading it and as frequently surprised by the plot twists and turns. I am sure that children in the target age will love it too.

User Comments
 

Printed at 01:35:23am on Saturday 30th March 2024