Love Among The Walnuts by Jean Ferris
pages: 220
released: September 1998
publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books
cover love: ♥

Sandy Huntington-Ackerman’s life becomes increasingly complicated when his bungling, moneygrubbing uncles try to shanghai the family fortune by poisoning a birthday cake. Luckily, those conniving uncles prove yet again that they can’t do anything right. Instead of bumping off the whole family, they put Sandy’s mom and dad and their pet chicken into mysterious comas. Sandy joins forces with his loyal butler and a wise and wacky nurse to save his parents and squelch his uncles’ felonious high jinks.  (from Goodreads)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 4/23/2011 ON BOOKSLIKESTARS.NET

Review:

I found this book on a library shelf and it seemed interesting so I decided to checked it out.

This book is like a great big fortune cookie. On the outside, it’s pretty plain and not very flavored or  filling. But when you open it up, that’s when you get the deeper hidden message. The writing is flat with hardly any descriptions of anything but in the end, the corners of your mouth will jerk up in a smile for the moral of this small story. This “telly” tale is about a wealthy couple, Horatio and Mousey, who build a house in a small secluded town to get away from the miserable hustle and bustle of city life and raise their son, Sandy.  Unfortunately Sandy’s parents, the butler’s wife and Sandy’s chicken are put into a poisonous coma by Sandy’s evil uncles, who are plotting to steal the family’s millions.  To keep them safe until Bentley the Butler finds a cure to wake them, everyone moves into the looney bin next door called Walnut Manor.  After spending almost a year visiting the institution, Sandy and Bentley come to realize that no one at Walnut Manor is really crazy.  They all just suffer from the same disease.  They are loveless.  And only one person has the cure: Sunnie the Nurse. 

What did I learn from Love Among The Walnuts? That a pinch of poison can go a long way. If not for evil plots, you would miss the opportunity to be saved…in so many different ways. 

Had it not been for greedy, hopeless Uncle Bernie and Bart, the patients at Walnut Manor may have died there, without ever meeting Nurse Sunnie. And she would’ve never shown them careful attention, shown them what it was like to be loved and gain the confidence they needed to look within themselves and see their own potential.  Sandy would’ve never seen how sheltered his life was out in the country.  Spending all that time in the manor showed him new emotions and responsibilities he’d never had the need for before his parents accident.  He learned to grow up…among the walnuts.  Bernie and Bart set out to destroy one family and instead created a bigger one.  Jean Ferris does a great job at showing how a dose of bad and a shower of good can change so many lives.

I would share my favorite line in the book but it’s a huge spoiler.

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