136. The McNifficents

The McNifficents. Amy Makechnie. 2023. 320 pages. [Source: Library] [MG Fiction; Animal Fantasy]

First sentence: IN A LARGE PINK FARMHOUSE at 238 Marigold Lane lives a most unusual nanny: Lord Tennyson, a short, middle-aged gentleman with white whiskers and a royal pedigree. If he could speak, it would be with dignity and a touch of an English accent. If he wore clothing, he imagines he’d wear a suit of gray silk and a striped bow tie. But he does neither because Lord Tennyson is a dog, a miniature schnauzer to be exact, who wears only a blue-and-green collar that has teeth marks in it from when Sweetums was going through a particularly bad biting phase.
Despite his distinguished appearance and pedigree, he was not spending his morning caring for a dignitary’s son or the daughter of the president. Rather, his duty was herding the unruly McNiff children from the old pink farmhouse into the old red farm truck for the first swim of summer vacation. There were six of them: two boys and four girls. As you can imagine, getting all of them to and from the lake was not an easy task.

My thoughts (preview): I fell in love with the book cover. I did. It looked like it would be an awesome book that I would just click with from the start. The premise also sounds awesome: a DOG as a nanny; six naughty children having adventures/misadventures for hundreds of pages. I was disappointed. There is a good possibility it is all on me. I think the timing was off. I tried so many times to read this one and get hooked, get invested. I kept waiting for it to come naturally. For me to be able to read smoothly, naturally, to fall in love with the characters and story. Never happened....for me.

Premise/plot: A SENIOR miniature Schnauzer is a "nanny" for six horribly, naughty children. The McNiffs need Lord Tennyson (the dog) to help teach them how to be loving, caring, decent human beings. They need a lot of help because they are so not there yet. The children couldn't get along if their lives depended on it. There is fussing, fighting, arguing, grudges, revenge, sneakiness. The parents are mostly absent. The dog is the narrator.

My thoughts (conclusion): I really HATED the melodrama of the next-to-last chapter. I realize that he is a senior dog. I realize that dogs die. But to have this melodramatic death scene (turns out to be near-death not actual death), was just CRUEL. I think this nearly losing Lord Tennyson is the climax of their behavior. This is the first glimpse of hope that the kids can unite for something--or someone. But still. 

I *wanted* more than just naughty children. Personally. I do think it was just bad timing on my part. Maybe if I'd read it a few months from now or a year or two from now, it would be the right time and place for me to love this one.

 

 

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