is that this beautiful trilogy by Natalie Lloyd is over!! Seven siblings in the Problim family, and we only got three books out of them. But boy, what amazing books they are!
Natalie Lloyd is a master storyteller, world creator, emotion developer--basically, she's a word magician. Just ask anyone who has read her books. Natalie has several standalone novels that precede her Problim Children trilogy that are all equally as magical and whimsical and important as this story.
But I have to say, I think this trilogy is my favorite thus far (she still has plenty of years to write something even more wonderful). The Problim Children follows the seven Problims--Sundae, Mona, Thea, Wendell, Toot, Frida, and Sal. THE PROBLIM CHILDREN no. 1 is told from Thea's perspective. Thea is basically just trying to figure out who she is, how she stands on her own, what she's good at, and who she is when her twin starts to grow on his own. It's even harder to figure all this out when your parents are missing, you're the new family in town, and your next door neighbor wants to ship you and your siblings off to several separate countries.
In this story, we get that sense of whimsy, but no physical magic.
THE PROBLIM CHILDREN: CARNIVAL CATASTROPHE follows Mona, the darkest, most maniacal of the Problim Children. Mona has trouble dealing with her emotions. Sometimes, she doesn't mean to come across the way she does, but cruelty seems to be her middle name. She's always looked at life and other people through a skeptical lens, but when she's convinced to enter a beauty pageant for the annual town carnival, her perspective on others shifts.
Magic is slowly starting to appear by this point in the siblings' tale.
In the final Problim Children book, ISLAND IN THE STARS, we dig deeper into Sal, the inventor of the family. The family member who creates magic, but doesn't believe in what he can't see. Before his parents disappeared, he was tasked with keeping his family together, and now he feels like he failed. He's been betrayed, family members are missing, and basically, the Problims have to save the world from becoming full of monsters with eternal life.
Magic is real now. Each of the Problims have their own abilities, and it's only when they are together that they are their most powerful.
Gosh, I love these stories. I've never read a trilogy that built on the magic in such a subtle, beautiful way. I've never felt for middle grade characters so powerfully as I have felt for the Problims. I was crying by the end of the third book, hoping that there would be a next one but knowing this was the end.
Natalie Lloyd has created characters, a family, that you want to be part of. That you relate to, even though they have some serious oddities going on...including a pet pig named Ichabod and a brother who communicates through toots. She touches on that part of being a kid who's growing up, who's dealing with all those ridiculously complicated emotions, who's learning to stand on their own in a big, loud, tight knit family.
I think everyone can find someone to connect to in these books, even if they aren't one of the three who have the main story lines. I believe I'm a combination of Sundae, the most optimistic, and Mona, the most pessimistic, lover of all things dark.
If you haven't read THE PROBLIM CHILDREN, or any other of Natalie's books, you're absolutely missing out. I don't care how old you are. This will make you feel all the whimsy and magic that you believed in as a child, or reassure your child that the magic they hope exists in them and the world around them, actually does.
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