[All Streatfeild's characters] have one thing in common—security. This security need not come from your own parents or relatives, but from someone who is with you all the time and cares about you. Indeed, they may be downright eccentric like Aunt Dymphna in The Growing Summer or matter-of-fact like the barge woman, Mrs. Smith, in Thursday's Child, sensible, practical and loving like Sylvia Brown, the children's guardian, in Ballet Shoes, or rather strait-laced, but thoroughly loyal, warm-hearted and trustworthy like Hannah, the housekeeper, in Curtain Up, but they always exist. Somewhere throughout the story, these people remain steadfast to provide the children with a measure of security, without which no healthy child can grow up satisfactorily.

I like the idea of the Johnstone family in Caldicott Place wanting to provide a home and a family background for "every child who wants somewhere to go during the holidays...