Now, based on sales at our story, Leaving the Bellweathers isn’t exactly a book people around here missed. However, I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen it on the NYT Bestseller list (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), so I suspect that perhaps this is a book that nationally is getting overlooked.
And that, I feel, is a darned tootin’ shame. (My Texas accent comes out when I’m vexed.) For not only is Leaving the Bellweathers the debut novel of an author whose future books I’m sure I’ll enjoy, it is also an extremely funny, clever, witty, and crazy book.
At it’s heart, the book is about the eccentric Bellweather family and their butler, Benway. Benway has been an indentured servant his entire life all because his great-great-great-something-grandfather was saved by a Bellweather. At that time the great-great-great-something-grandfather promised that he and his descendents would serve the Bellweathers for the next 200 years. Benway’s estatic that the time is almost up. The book is his (third-person) journal as he gets ready to find a replacement and, as the title implies, leave the Bellweathers.
The book is hilarious. The Bellweathers are such a cast of characters and Benway’s role as permanent straight man makes the rest even funnier. Perfect both for kids 8 & up to read on their own, this book is also a great bed-time or school story-time for kids as young as 6.
Madeline
Meghan
juliewbp
Bless you for writing about THE BELLWEATHERS. It is a truly hilarious book, offbeat and quirky and ultimately touching.
[...] the fall we’ll get The Butler Gets a Break, the sequel to Leaving the Bellweathers, which I wrote about in March. And also in the fall, we’ll get the third in the Youngest Templar series, which [...]