Holiday House: A Series of Tales

Long before there was Mary Poppins or Peter Pan, Catherine Sinclair gave us Harry and Laura Graham: two irrepressible siblings navigating childhood in a grand English house, watched over by the formidable Mrs. Crabtree, their strict nursery governess. The children have recently lost their mother and now orbit around their distant father, Sir Edward Graham, while eldest brother Frank attempts to hold everything together. What unfolds is a series of anarchic adventures: Laura's hair gets sheared in a midnight experiment, the nursery catches fire during one too many capers, and countless schemes to outwit the ever-disapproving Mrs. Crabtree. Yet beneath the mischief lies something tender: a portrait of children finding joy and connection in the wake of loss, testing boundaries and learning, with plenty of humor along the way. Written in 1839, this is early children's literature doing what it does best, entertaining young readers while sneaking in a moral or two.