“Prue and Tiger were accustomed to the stray animals their older sister, Rosanna, was always bringing home to care for on the family’s small farm in the south of England. They knew that Rosanna, who had been looking after them since their mother’s death, was soft-hearted, but it was too much when she thrust on the household her newest stray–an impossible and difficult boy named Arthur.

When Arthur broke his leg and was put in a cast, he became doubly burdensome. And because Prue and Tiger felt responsible for having caused the accident, the need to amuse him during his many weeks in the cast weighed on them even more heavily than did his sullen demands. Unhappily, the problem of Arthur coincided with a more serious concern–a challenge to their ownership of a portion of their beloved farm.”

Can Prue, Tiger, and Albert work together to save Bethwines, their favorite part of the farm called Winterpicks? And what is to be done with Albert, whose father seems to have deserted him? This middle grade/young adult story, published in 1964 before those categories existed in publishing parlance, features Tiger (Simon), age 10, Prue, age 14, and Rosanna, age 18–and of course, Albert, age 9. The children do end up working together to solve the problem of Bethwines in addition to a host of other issues, and their eventual ability to do so becomes the salvation of Albert as well contributing to the growth and maturation of Prue and Tiger.

It’s growing up story and a family story, with a little innocent romance for Rosanna thrown into the mix. Prue and Tiger are normal, everyday children who get tired of waiting on and entertaining Albert but learn to care for him in the end. There’s a mystery about Bethwines to solve, and a good time is had by one and all.

Barbara Willard wrote one of my favorite series of historical fiction, the Mantlemass Chronicles, as well as several stand-alone historical fiction titles, but this book is only historical in the sense that it was written and published over fifty years ago. The setting is that now far-away time, the 1960’s. Ms. Willard has a knack for portraying children, and adults, as real people who make mistakes and have character flaws, but nothing too serious or shocking. Except for the opening scene when Albert breaks his leg by falling from a ladder, nothing too dramatic happens in the story, but it is absorbing and humanely interesting, nevertheless. I recommend the book to those who like quiet British village children’s fiction.