- Books+Publishing, four stars

After being abandoned by their thespian parents one afternoon while playing their weekly family game of hide-and-seek, Whimsy and Woe Mordaunt are left in the care of their austere Aunt Atropine.

Forced to work in her boarding house, looking after the guests, sharpening the thorns of every plant in the poisonous plant garden and listening to off-key renditions of Fish Are Friends Too - an aria made famous by the legendary Magnus Montgomery - Whimsy and Woe lose all hope that their parents will someday return. Until one day, quite by accident, the siblings stumble upon a half-charred letter that sets them on a course to freedom and finding their parents.

Dark, funny, darkly funny and funnily dark, Whimsy & Woe takes readers on an adventure with two intrepid siblings in a tale of mischief, monocles, mice and mist.

MORE PRAISE

'Whimsy and Woe has it all: incredibly courageous children (hooray!), an evil calculating aunt, the ignominious Ignatius Solt (boo!) and a despicable one-legged pirate (hiss!), captivity and misery in a boarding house populated by an outlandish clientele (gasp!) and a heroic escape from a treacherous storm, imprisonment in a swamp and a wolf with razor-sharp teeth ... all told with vivid thespian style and flair.' - Readings

'Rebecca McRitchie knows what young readers want. McRitchie delivers a fun, energetic read in her debut children's fiction title; it is perfect for fans of Judith Rossell's Withering-by-Sea and Lemony Snicket's 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'. With non-stop plot twists, Whimsy and Woe has the ability to keep the attention of reluctant readers who will want to know what happens next.' - Books+Publishing, four stars

'Written in a style wonderfully akin to Lemony Snicket, the quaint language and eccentric characters will capture your imagination and keep you up reading late into the night.' - Goodreads review

AWARDS

Notable Book - CBCA Book of the Year Awards

Shortlisted - 2019 Davitt Awards

Shortlisted - 2018 Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards