Love Among the Walnuts: or, How I Saved My Family from Being Poisoned

By Jean Ferris

Book Overview

Sandy Huntington-Ackerman didn't expect life to be a free ride (even though his parents are multimillionaires). He certainly didn't expect his two money-grubbing uncles to try to kill his family with a drugged birthday cake. Luckily for Sandy, the cake only sends his parents (and their pet chicken, Attila) into a coma. Along with a loyal butler and a wacky nurse from the asylum next door, Sandy is determined to bring the scoundrels to justice -- if he's not the next to go This rollicking screwball-comedy of a story (The Horn Book) is just right for fans of Holes and The Westing Game.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141310995
• ISBN13: 9780141310992
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Puffin
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.6" x 5.0"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8

Customer Reviews

The BEST and FUNNIEST book I've EVER read!!!

Love Among the Walnuts was a book I was assigned to read for the summer. It didn't sound very appealing at first, seeing as how there was a chicken on the cover and the main character was a boy named Sandy. But after I started reading it, you'd need to pry the book from my hands with a wrench to get me to stop. The story was hilarious! It's about a boy named Sandy whose parents and pet chicken have fallen into comas. He sends them to a "loony bin" called Walnut Manor. There, he meets a whole bunch of wacky patients including the "cat molester", and Everet, who only speaks in other people's quotes. He also meets Sunnie, the nurse, who he is very attracted to. I think that both girls and boys will laugh out loud at this book. Boys will find the wacky patients to be downright hilarious. Girls will think so, too, but they might also laugh at the love that Sandy has for Sunnie. I, being a girl, thought of Sandy as the guy I loved to hate. He would never admit that he liked Sunnie and his approach was all wrong. Most girls will love that. I'd give this book ten stars if I could. It was amazingly written and very funny. Everyone will like this story in one way or another.

Quirky characters you will love!

What a clever, engaging comedy! It reminds me of the play/movie, "You Can't Take it With You." I think it would make a delightful, Frank Capra-type movie.

Great Book

Jean Ferris did a great job on this book. It was funny and hard to put down.If you like this book you'll love her other book Once Upon a Marigold.

Murder she wrote meets The Waltons

This book ought to be a movie, it's so much fun to read. It's got rich folks, poor folks, kids who don't do drugs, true love, lunatics in the asylum next door who are saner than most of the folks in Washington DC. It's got intrigue, bad guys (who are after the money), funny lines and touching characters. If it were a movie, it would be Awakenings Meets Groucho Marx. Great for kids ten to thirteen. Or grownups who like to read really good books.

Love Among the Walnuts a terrific Read!

Two money loving uncles, Bart and Bernie, try to squadder the family fountune. A poisened cake puts almost the entier family in to a coma, exapt for Sandy, the son, and Bently, the butler. They check them into the nuthouse next door, and soon get to know the inmates, while trying to gather evidence to arresst the uncles. I recomend this to any young adult reader.