Parody takes Willoughbys’ to a different level for kids

Satire is rare in children’s writing because it relies on the reader and writer having had a shared or similar experience — at least sufficient to get what the writer is making fun of — and children simply have not had as many experiences as adults. Lowry gets around this problem by parodying what children will recognize: the characters and plots of classic stories.

Lowry is best known as the author of “The Giver,” about the horrors of conformity in a utopian society, and “Number the Stars,” about how the Danish people protected Jews during the Nazi occupation. “The Willoughbys” couldn’t be further in tone from those Newbery-winning novels .

The story follows the Willoughbys, an “old-fashioned family” living in a nondescript neighborhood but for the forbidding- looking mansion down the street. The Willoughby parents are neglectful and detest their own family so much they conspire to “rid ourselves of the children.” The four Willoughby children hate their parents right back and long to be orphans.

When Timothy, 12, his twin 10-year-old brothers Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and his sister Jane, 6, find a baby on the doorstep, their decision to pass it on to the fusty mansion’s doorstep sets in motion a series of intertwining plots in which Lowry weaves the recognizable chestnuts of fairytales: an abandoned baby; an eccentric, wise nanny; a solitary rich man with a heart of gold; a lost son; a mean stepfather.

The satire is subtle, so much so that some of it may escape her readers, but her well-plotted story and lively characters can stand alone without the layers of parody.

At the back of the book, she fills in any gaps with a glossary and brief summaries of the novels to which she alludes.

Some of her summaries are funnier than the books they describe, such as this one of “Mary Poppins” by P.L. Travers. “Ms. Poppins does not sing, ever, and would not like being portrayed as someone who did.” Lowry also illustrated this book with delightful ink sketches reminiscent of the engravings that used to adorn classic children’s books.