Character Development: Most pronounced in the case of Tom Levin, who is a surly, troubled, and a bit sardonic in his behavior American boy, but who grows up thanks to Rose's and Indigo's influence in his life, which gives him the strength he needs to return to America to be there with his half-sister, who is very ill and whom he formerly hated. The words fell into a moment of silence. Rose held her breath between roars. Caddy's head jerked up and her eyes were startled. Indigo stopped hammering. Eve went scarlet and looked very confused and began an unhappy mumble. A not-yet, not-now sort of mumble. Tom teaches Indigo how to play the guitar, and then David takes up the drums. Have you ever wanted to learn how to play an instrument? Look into renting an instrument and taking lessons.

Meaningful Name: All the Casson kids, but Rose especially, as the "Permanent" in her name is a reference to her being a preemie baby, and Eve named her Permanent Rose as a sort of promise - and so that she would be permanent as other people sent her flowers after Rose was born, implying that Rose wouldn't be around long enough for real gifts, so Eve called her Permanent Rose not only after the gorgeous color described in the book, but in the defiant belief that her little daughter would permanently stay with them. Like Brother and Sister: Canon's opinion on the David/Rose pairing, which is hardly ever written in fanfic or thought about.

Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Averted in the case of Caddy and Michael's relationship, as his heart belongs to her despite him leaving in book three and Caddy fully realising that it is only Michael leaves she truly loves at the end of Caddy Ever After. Subverted with Bill Casson and Eve, however, as Eve still loves him even though his heart seems to go yonder if he is away from her. I got into the story for Caddy and Michael, though - all conversations very well-rendered in audio form, "MICHAEL, DARLING!" "Don't call May–December Romance: Tom/Rose, the books' fandom most popular pairing, are five years apart, but this doesn't stop Rose from being in love with him from the age of eight. (and there's hints throughout the books that Tom reciprocates her feelings). Also, Indigo/Sarah to a lesser extent. The Unreveal: For the 19 December 2010 blog post, no one still knows what exactly Tom said to Rose that evening or what she told him - only that it kept Rose up thinking "long, long thoughts."

Irony: Saffy's constant insistence throughout the first two books how "Bill is not [my] father." It later turns out to be true, however. It also gives her a Heroic BSoD. The book builds its characters very cleverly, with little anecdotes just real enough to be inherently humorous and smart enough to be intentionally, side-splittingly funny. Then comes the end of the book, one giant laugh-out-loud conclusion as all the pieces come together in ridiculous, unexpected ways complete with sparkling dialogue and notes from Rose. (The notes from Rose are not to be missed.) We are!" cried Eve. "Of course we are! We adopted you! We wanted you! Your mother was my sister! Caddy and Indigo and Rose are your cousins!" Bittersweet Ending: Tom leaving to return to America because of a family crisis. Rose hides under the bed and refuses to say goodbye to him, and later, Rose and Indigo watch the stars and wish on airplanes as they think of him.Rose wailed even louder because she didn't want to be undressed. Her mother said, "Oh, darling! Darling!" Indigo began hammering at likely-looking lumps of coal with the handle end of the poker. Caddy let the hamster walk across the table, and it made a delicate and beautiful pattern of rainbow-colored footprints all over the health visitor's notes. I wrote a critical essay for school on this, and it was labelled (by the teacher who hasn't read it) as "girly teen fiction", because it is not about war or best friends killing each other (although there are deaths, and best friends). Fiction? Yes. Teen? Maybe, although there is a massive variety of ages that enjoy this book. Girly? No. My brother enjoys this book. He doesn't like reading, but still he is working on getting through the rest of the series.

I can't find me," she grumbled to Indigo, wobbling on the stool. "I can't find Saffron written anywhere." biblioNET OPAC". Biblioteca Municipal de Sobral de Monte Agraço (in European Portuguese) . Retrieved 24 June 2023. All Love Is Unrequited: Rose has showed signs of this as she longs for Tom to return her feelings. A blog update seemed to hint that he does, but so far since her May 14th 2011 update, nothing is really known officially about how Tom and Rose feel about each other. But was he my grandad right from the beginning?" persisted Saffron, determined to have the truth this time. "Like he was Caddy's and Indigo's and Rose's?" This shows how Saffron has felt out of place for years, and when she goes to mourn the loss of a relative that her family loves as much as she does, it almost makes her fit in. The last sentence in the paragraph renews your sympathy for Saffron.Indigo Casson - the only boy of the Casson family. Indigo takes to cooking odd things for the family whenever Eve has forgotten to buy the food. Indigo has dreams of becoming an Arctic explorer but has to conquer his fear of heights. What do you think about Bill's and Eve's styles of parenting? In what ways are their styles similar, and in what ways are they different? Are they good parents? Do you think the four children would have turned out differently if they'd been brought up by a more traditional couple? At Grandad's death, he leaves something to each of the children. To Saffy, it is "her angel," although no one knows its identity. How Saffy discovers what her angel is, with the help of an energetic new friend, lies at the heart of this enchanting story. Unforgettable characters come alive in often deeply humorous and always absorbing events to make a book to be treasured for a long, long time. This shows that Caddy, and therefore the rest of the family, all share Saffron’s loneliness. When the family attends the funeral, there is a moment when Saffron seems contented in a strange way:

Saffron makes a call home and talks to her mother. Caddy is still revising to beat Michael's girlfriend, Rose is doing her art and Indigo is conquering more fears of his. Saffron and Sarah try again and again, until on the last day they find Saffron's ex-neighbour. The neighbour tells Saffron that her grandfather took the stone angel away long ago, when he took Saffron. Meanwhile, Caddy takes her driving test. Rose and Indigo decide to look in the Banana House for Saffy's angel. I don't know. He went away that same night. We didn't see him again for ages and ages, and when we did, he was different." Heroic Bystander: Ironically enough, the boys bullying Indigo rescue Rose when she's about to cross the street with Tom's broken guitar without using a crosswalk or looking both ways. They pay for it when Rose believes they broke the guitar further and recognizes them as the gang going after her brother, leading to her beating them up. Early in the book, Saffy realizes that all of the kids in the family have names found on a color chart in the Casson kitchen, except for her. When she presses her mother for an explanation, she learns that she was not named by Eve and Bill, because she is not biologically their child. Rather, Saffy's mother is Eve's deceased sister, and she was adopted into the family after her mother's death. This information really isolates Saffy, and when her grandfather dies and leaves her a mysterious angel in his will, she becomes even more curious about her past. Tonkin, Boyd (12 July 2003). "Children's authors rediscover fun to usurp masters of the dark arts". The Independent. [ dead link]Case in point, as of the Rose's blog; Tom is eighteen and Rose is thirteen, and Indigo made her really unhappy with the revelation that the age disparity between both of them is too much, and so Rose sulks and sulks, finally making her blog to ease her pain, as Rose has not - and will probably never - get over Tom Levin. So. Oh man I'm going to get a lot of people disagreeing with me on this but this is by far one of the most daunting books I've ever read. When each of Eve's children was born, she named them after a colour on her beloved artists' paint chart. First, Cadmium Gold – soon simplified to Caddy by her siblings; then, five years later, Saffron came (although she wasn't Eve's child); then another two years and Indigo, the only boy, arrived; then five or six years on arrived Permanent Rose, known simply as Rose. After years of raising hamsters and guinea pigs, Caddy devotes her adult life to working with animals. Find some place in your community -- an animal shelter, a zoo, an aquarium, etc. -- where you can volunteer with animals. Very nice!" the health visitor replied, and Saffron looked pleased for a moment, but then stopped when the health visitor added that both her twins had been fluent readers at four years old and had gone right through their elementary school library by the age of six.