Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland

Title: Scones and Sensibility	Loved it	Graded
Author: Lindsay Eland
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Egmont USA
Elements: Jane Austen
Series: Stand alone

Seek tirelessly and you shall not find a contemporary heroine of middle-grade literature as refined and romantic as Miss Polly Madassa. Still swooning over the romantic conclusions of Pride & Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables, twelve-year-old Polly decides her purpose in life: helping along lonely hearts in search of love.

Polly's only task this summer is to make deliveries for her parents' bakery, leaving ample time for this young cupid to find hearts to mend--beginning with the kite-store owner, Mr. Nightquist, who will pair perfectly with Miss Wiskerton (the unfairly labeled town curmudgeon). Polly's best friend Fran Fisk is in desperate need of a mother ever since hers ran off with a man she met on the Internet; Polly must find a match for Mr. Fisk.

And while she's at it, it wouldn't hurt to find Clementine, Polly's teenaged sister, a beau worthy of her (so she can shed that brute, Clint). Polly's plans are in full swing, so she definitely cannot be bothered by the advances of classmate Brad Barker.

But maybe Polly should have turned her attention to Miss Austen's Emma next, because she quickly learns the pitfalls of playing matchmaker. How will Polly patch up her own relationships, while ensuring that destined love can take its course?

Polly didn't appeal to me as a character at first mainly because I wasn't used to her speaking in Victorian era English. It was different, it was slightly odd and I didn't like it. However, there's more to a story than the way it was narrated, and the more I read, the more I liked Polly and her way of speaking.

The first half was slow, much of it revolving around Olde English Polly's attempts to matchmake people around her. She was set in her ways and it was frustrating, seeing her trying to matchmake her happily attached sister to another boy because her current partner was deemed 'unsuitable'. Luckily, the second half brought my affections as glimpses of the inner modern twelve year old emerged from underneath the tightly buttoned up airs.

I liked that inner twelve year old more than Olde English Polly, just because she seemed more real and true to herself. Her misadventures left me shaking my head at times, but they were amusing as she tries to remake Jane Austen's world into something tangible. She imagines doves spreading peace and love everywhere, but she doesn't quite envision the crap that falls on the ground. I would have loved to have seen more being developed in Polly's own love life, showing a parallel between her imaginations and real life, and was saddened it wasn't explored to its full potential.

Scones and Sensibility is a Lindsay Eland's tribute to Jane Austen, her stories and those who have read of her and her books. When I first read Scones and Sensibility, I couldn't get what the big deal was. Why was Polly so affected by such a book? And so I decided to read Pride and Prejudice for myself, which lead to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Merlin followed after, along with Legend of the Seeker.

What does this have to do with Scones and Sensibility, you ask? Well, I have to credit it for opening a whole new world of possibilities, and therein lies its magic.