The Exiles In Love

by Hilary McKay

Overview

Love is in the air
Romantic love enters the lives of the four Conroy sisters when Ruth develops a crush on the school bus driver. Next she finds herself pining for Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, smitten with the Temporary English teacher (to whom sister Naomi is attracted as well), and infatuated with Alan Adair from the butcher's shop.
Meanwhile, the younger girls have other things on their minds as Rachel longs to become May Queen and Phoebe practices to become an international spy. But when Big Grandma arranges for Philippe, a French boy, to stay with the Conroys, will all the girls fall head over heels for his charms?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416967972
Publisher:	Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date:	11/14/2007
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	680L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Hilary McKay is the award-winning author of The Time of Green Magic (which received five starred reviews), The Skylarks’ War (which was a Boston Globe Best Book and received three starred reviews), Binny Bewitched (which was a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and received two starred reviews), Binny in Secret (which received three starred reviews), Binny for Short (which received four starred reviews), and six novels about the Casson family: Saffy’s Angel, Indigo’s Star, Permanent Rose, Caddy Ever After, Forever Rose, and Caddy’s World. She is also the author of The Swallows’ Flight, Rosa by Starlight, and Wishing for Tomorrow, the sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess. Hilary lives with her family in Derbyshire, England. Visit her at HilaryMcKay.co.uk.

Editorial Reviews

The third Exiles novel is as witty as its predecessors; here, the four Conroy sisters, ages eight through 15, succumb to the "family failing"--love. Ages 9-12. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 5-8Readers who have been captivated by these British sisters in The Exiles (1992) and The Exiles at Home (1994, both McElderry) will be delighted by this next installment of their madcap saga. Ruth, Naomi, Rachel, and Phoebe Conroy are growing up-as evidenced when they succumb to what their grandmother terms "The family failing." Though she makes it sound like an inherited characteristic like freckles, this failing is, in actuality, the tendency to fall in love, as Big Grandma puts it, "Impractically. Desperately. Unsuitably. And usually quite hopelessly." In this instance, events somewhat mysteriously engineered by Big Grandma snowball in a barely controlled fashion to land the Conroys a wildly charming French boy as a houseguest and later propel the girls on a holiday to Philippe's grandfather's orchard somewhere in France. Big Grandma and the grandfather are as thick as thieves, making readers aware that the family failing may not wear off with the passing of time. The tribulations of young girls in love, attempts to speak and shop in French, a possible ghost in the orchard, and the not-quite-plausible illness of Philippe combine to keep this lighthearted romp bouncing along. It all ends satisfyingly with a wedding. Great fun.Miriam Lang Budin, Mt. Kisco Public Library, NY

School Library Journal

This third book about the irrepressible Conroy sisters (The Exiles at Home, 1994, etc.) takes them on a vacation to France with Big Grandma, who renews her acquaintance with a married male friend. In the meantime, Phoebe pursues her determination to become an international spy, Ruth tries to get over the "family failing" of falling in love, Naomi passes off her blue hair as the latest style, and Rachel plans to marry Philippe, a French boy who visited the family in England. McKay's wickedly dry humor (at a funeral for a dead hedgehog, Naomi tells Phoebe that RIP stands for "Riddled In Parasites") and enchanting, outrageous characters result in a book that has appeal on every page: Philippe, especially, is a winning combination of Gallic charm and precocious wit. His invasion of the Conroy home will be as memorable for readers as it is for the sisters, and in the second half, when he is kept mostly offstage, no one will lack compassion for poor Rachel. (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews