The Ansel-by-the-Sea series by Amanda Dykes (2019) Because of the 12-year time span between the two, a different illustrator was used in the sequel, and, well, lets just say that Barb Ericksen’s illustrations in the first novel are VASTLY superior to Roger Bradfield’s illustrations in the second novel, which are even inferior to Charles Greer’s modern cover illustration of the Purple House Press edition.1. If you loved the first, do not hesitate to love the sequel.ĭefects? Just a minor nitpick. So that is the premise of this intriguing, separated by a dozen years, double novel that can now be read as one. The mysterious way it is put into my hands becomes the beginning of ‘All in Good Time’” So I had provided myself with a story-how the girls’ plot had succeeded-and a way of telling it, based on the diary. And again all unknowingly, I had given Susan a diary to take with her back to 1881. The old photograph tells us that it has happened, but we’re left without a clue as to HOW. All unknowingly, I had set up in the last few chapters of ‘Time at the Top’ a perfect opportunity for a further story-the success of of the plot hatched by Susan and Victoria to combine their two families. It took me a long time to realize I was wrong. That was a stand-alone book, I thought, and its story was so tidily wrapped up that it seemed nothing more about Susan’s adventures could be said.

“I never intended to write a sequel to ‘Time at the Top’. All that was necessary was for him to realize it: However, the possibility was already there, the “pipes laid” unknowingly by the author himself. This becomes a lot more understandable when you read his Author’s Forward, written in 2011, to this double volume including both: no such sequel was initially planned or even thought necessary in 1963.

Edward Ormondroyd, author of a number of wonderful children’s books including David and the Phoenix, had a secret many of his fans didn’t know, especially fans of his much beloved Time at the Top, which I obtained from Scholastic Book Clubs back before color was invented (Well, that’s what I told MY kids, though they looked at me rather skeptically).

Time at the Top by Edward Ormondroyd