There were six Bronte children in the early 1800s. They lived in Haworth, England, a town in the north in Yorkshire, just west of Leeds. They were not long-lived siblings but two of them produced two classic novels that we still read today. The two oldest sisters died as children. Charlotte was the author of Jane Eyre and three other novels. She died at age 38. Branwell was a painter and writer who died at age 31. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights and died at age 30. Anne wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and died at age 29. Today, the parsonage where they grew up is preserved as a museum in Haworth.
What does all this have to do with this review? It is known that Branwell, the only boy, was given a set of toy wooden soldiers as a present and wrote stories about them. His sisters took an interest, also – it seemed the whole family liked to invent stories. Pauline Clarke has taken these historical facts and woven a delightful fantasy, The Return of the Twelves, about a modern boy, Max, living in Yorkshire, England, who finds these twelve soldiers in the old house into which he has just moved. The twelve figures are special – dearly loved by the Brontes, they come alive in his hands, and he and his sister Jane learn much about the Brontes and life in the early 1800s in England. However, there is a threat to the soldiers, inadvertently caused by the oldest sibling, Philip, and they make their perilous way cross-country trying to get back to their home, the Haworth parsonage Bronte museum. All in all, a very creative and original fantasy that is based in history, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1963, the British equivalent of the American Newbery Award. There is also a wonderful theme in this novel – how to treat a small but living person that is in your power. Do you take advantage of your power or do you do what is right? The same theme appears in The Indian in the Cupboard, which some may have read, but is much better handled in The Return of the Twelves. True integrity is only shown by how you treat someone over whom you exercise authority.