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The Wind on the Moon by: Eric Linklater

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Publisher: Jane Nissen Books
Release date: 1st May, 2000
Media: Paperback

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Average rating - (more reviews)

Rating: - fantastic book!!

what a fabulous book this is, I read it when I was a child and loved it. I bought the book again this year to read to my eight year old daughter and was worried I might not find it so magical as an adult. It is still a beautiful story, imaginative and funny and sad. The characters of Dinah and Dorinda and their various friends are so well drawn, especially the brave and beautiful golden puma and the dignified silver falcon. If you have children read this book to them and they will love it and so will you! The chapters are just the right length for a bedtime story and the characters give lots of opportunities to "do" voices. We laughed and cried together as we read this book and I am sure we have made some memories which will last for a long time to come.

Rating: - A masterpiece

I was bought this book when I was 8 - just a year after it was first published in 1944. As a child I just loved the story - two children whose father is about to set off on dangerous mission to a country ruled by the tyrant Count Hulago Bloot (favourite occupations - eating chocolate creams and pasting pictures in big photo albums of all the people he's had tortured or shot#, they re-pack his suitcase and are so upset at his apparent ingratitude that they decide that if being good doesn't work, they'll be bad instead. It was a refreshing change from most of the goody-goody moralising of other children's books of the period, and included a cast of unforgettable characters: their governess Miss Serendip #whose name only made sense many years later#; a witch Mrs Grimble who was not the usual stereotype, just a grumpy old woman who lived alone in the wood but could do magic if she had a mind to; two sappers who've been underground for so long they didn't realise that queen Victoria was long dead. It's a different world from today - middle class people have cooks and governesses, but it's free of the snobbery and racism which disfigures many books of the period. It's also not sentimental - it has a rather 'adult' feel, full of jokes and absurd situations. It also has danger and excitement, magic and sadness - a complex book. The chapters are short - about 15 minutes to read aloud. Above all, it must be virtually unique for the period in which it was written #and long afterwards# in that the two main characters who have all the exciting adventures are girls - there are no male figures who come to their rescue, ever. It's also very unusual in that the ending is rather wistful and sad - you feel that you've been on a terrific journey and grown up in the process.

I read this to my own children, discovering accidentally that my 5 year old son was enchanted by it as much as his 8 year old sister. When I became a teacher I read it to my classes and they loved it too. Do yourselves a favour - rush out and buy a copy!

Rating: - A fun romp with two very naughty girls

"When there is wind on the moon, you must be very careful how you behave. Because if it is an ill wind and you behave badly, it will blow straight into your heart, and then you will behave badly for a long time to come." These words uttered by Major Palfrey, Dinah and Dorinda's father, is a foretelling of a year's worth of naughtiness for the two girls. With their father gone, they do their best to make mischief as when they try to do good they end up getting scolded anyway.

First the sisters eat too many pies, steaks and bread to blow themselves up into the shape of balloons. Then, after the village kids prick them with pins to see if they would burst, they cried themselves thin. Their real adventures begin with thoughts of revenge.

With the help of Mrs. Grimble, they bewitch themselves into kangaroos ("I have often wondered what I shall be when I grow up, whether a teacher of dancing, or a circus rider, or a mother of ten, but never, never, never did I expect to be a kangaroo."). With kicks, leaps and bounds they terrify the village people. But their rampage is short-lived. Lassoed by the zoo's owner and caretaker, they are caged and tended as other zoo animals. Here, they solve the mystery of lost Ostrich eggs and free two beasts who become their loyal friends.

Their appetite for naughtiness and cleverness whetted, they turn their attention to freeing their beloved dancing teacher from the county jail. All this is just preparation for the greatest escape adventure of all, rescuing their father from the castle dungeons of a far country.

Eric Linklater's humor shines and the plot zigs and zags unexpectedly. Dorinda and Dinah will be the envy of any child who yearns to take their naughtiness to a higher level.

Caution: Some sentiments in the book may be offensive to some: that fat people are ugly or a person whose face is blackened by dirt looks like a 'negro'.

Overall it is a fun romp with two very naughty girls. Just one thing boggles this reader's mind: Why doesn't their mother ever notice them missing for days or weeks at a time?

Rating: - Favourite children's book

I am delighted to see that this book is currently in print. Like another of the reviewers, I have read and re-read it constantly for many years and am still enchanted by its strange combination of fantasy and satire.

Rating: - Good memories from my childhood

an imaginative, and in places dark, story ideal for children, with more imagination than most available childrens books, and better written too.

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