That said, the books are in a long tradition of children's literature in being agreeable fantasy. Let's face it. Eve, however loving, is a barely adequate mother who fails to feed her children properly and leaves them alone in the house at night while she sleeps in the shed. The fact that this comes over as delightful and somehow just another way to live is a tribute to McKay's skill. In fact, life would be a lot more frightening for the Casson children if it were not for safe, capable Sarah's Mother just down the road.
The ending leaves plenty of scope for yet more fluctuations in these ramshackle lives.
