Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland

I admit it- I’m a cover girl.  Show me a pretty girl and I’m completely drawn in.  So when I saw a display of Lindsay Eland’s Scones and Sensibility at the bookstore, I fell in love. The loopy doodles! The vintage shadow design! The pinks and purples! It was a girly girl’s dream (and I’m not even a girly girl!). I picked up a copy and finally sat down to read it last week.

What an adorable book!  Polly Madassa was born in the wrong century.  She longs for the days of Anne, Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, and her other favorite heroes and heroines.  She dreams of a life where gentlemen court young ladies, where love conquers all, and manners take precedence over coolness.  Unfortunately, she lives in New Jersey and is forced to deliver pastries for her parents’s bakery over summer vacation.  But when she sees how many people in her town are in need of love, she decides to put her matchmaking skills to the test.  For isn’t everyone happier when they have found their one and only soul mate?  Polly certainly believes so.  Even if it means ending a few relationships that are clearly wrong for the lovers involved.

I found myself cracking up throughout the book.  Polly is determined to bring back romanticism and does her small part by speaking as a proper young lady would.  This means she speaks like Miss Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice and Anne Shirley of Green Gables.  But some of the funniest moments in the story come when Polly inadvertently slips into modern pretween speech.  It’s quite a jolt to hear her exclaim, “That’s awesome!” and then slip effortlessly back into her Victorian voice.

I am hoping that Scones and Sensibility will awaken a few of my readers to the classics like Anne of Green Gables and Pride and Prejudice. Even if it doesn’t, Scones and Sensibility is a fun and inspired middle grade read.  It’s unlike anything else I have read and I look forward to sharing it with my own romantics in class.