This story was interesting yet quite odd. I later read that it was a translation from Polish and that helped clear things up a bit.

Hell and a false leg, this was disappointing. Everything about this allegedly farcical children's drama was stilted and archaic, from the silly choices of Anglicised names down. Three parties of children in different quantities go into a woods at night to seek a young girl allegedly missing in them. But I just couldn't care a jot about anybody, for it all felt completely dry. Long before the end I was skimming it to find the risible ending. I expected something a lot more enjoyable.

Mark, Annie, and little Pudding are trying to find something to do on the last few days of their holiday when they come across a little girl crying in the woods. They offer to help and set out to find Macadamia's lost Clementine.

I was not able to finish this. The cover was a little misleading, as I thought this was a picture book. My child was not interested at all and I couldn't find the time to read it on my own, as the story didn't really interest me either.

I'm not sure why it seemed like a good idea to release this book that was originally published in England in 1970 but to me it was so dated and had so many cultural references that my students would have no idea about that the book had no appeal at all.

The Marx Brothers, as Kids, With a Tart Polish Sense of Humor, Run Around in the Woods

This is a funny, slightly manic tale that should have its own genre description - "Eastern European screwball kids' comedy".

The book's cover tells you all you need to know about the main characters. Mark, Annie and Pudding, (the three siblings at the bottom of the circle), find little girl Macadamia in the woods. Macadamia has lost Clementine. With night coming on and a major thunderstorm threatening the three kids resolve to search for Clementine. Then, Eddie and Freddie, (the two brothers at the top of the circle), decide to follow and conduct their own search. Then Teddy, the local constable's son, decides to take his dog out and conduct his own "major operation". So, we have six kids wandering around the woods at night in the rain, all looking for Clementine. Now add in some responsible adults and some quirky adults and some inept adults, and have them search for Clementine and for the six kids.

It feels a little bit like a farce, with characters entering and leaving stage right, stage center and stage left. There is a tremendous energy to the story-telling, although there are frequent pauses in the action to allow everyone, (including the reader), to catch their breath and reflect on what's going on.

At times the book feels a bit like a parody of an Enid Blyton style kid adventure story. These kids are not the intrepid, omni-competent kids from standard adventure tales. Pudding is whiny and lazy. Mark is a bit of a fuss-budget know-it-all. Teddy has a bit of Inspector Clouseau to him. And so on. The kids make terrible decisions, constantly surprise and scare each other, and cannot stay dry or hold on to their flashlights. The charm, though, is that each kid grows on you as you read and they earn their likeability.

All of this may work because of the author's dry and deadpan funny approach to the whole ridiculous enterprise. There are some very tart throwaway lines and bracing observations. Dialogue is brief, often dizzy, and frequently a bit pointed. There is an underlying honesty regarding how kids really think and how they can swerve between brave and fearful in an eye-blink. The effect is to make the book feel real and goofy at the same time, which is quite an accomplishment.

This book was originally published in Poland in 1970. More and more children's and middle grade books are being translated and published for English speaking audiences and it seems to me that this book is a wonderful example of why that is a very good development. (Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)