This is funny, sometimes absurd, and occasionally a little shocking, considering it's a children's book. But it's also rather sweet in its own way.

This probably wouldn't be appropriate for very sensitive kids, as there is mention of people and animals dying rather violently and animals being killed.

Note: God's name is misused, there's one instance of "hell" used as a curse word, and the kids use phrases like "shut up" occasionally. ( )

Melissa, Amanda and Pee Wee's parents are going to Paris and the babysitter is ill, so Dad calls on his sister Sally to come stay with the kids.

When Aunt Sally arrives she is a surprise to the kids. Tall, wearing very high heels with chunky soles and laces that wound up her legs. She had a lot of yellow hair that was piled high on the top of her head, sparkly eyes and long dangle earrings.

Aunt Sally brings with her tales of her childhood and life on Vancouver Island in Canada. Stories about Great-Uncle Louis who came to visit for two weeks and stayed six years and his belief that everybody had to eat all their green beans, bullrushes, fiddlehead ferns and other vegetables to be healthy. Also the fact that he believed in trolls. Grandma Evelyn and Grandpa Willie who had a pretty happy-go-lucky house. The next door neighbours, the Hoffners and their dogs Mrs. Gunderson and the new Mrs. Gunderson. And much more.

Aunt Sally talks to the kids as people and not kids. Her stories are entertaining but with a message about families and how the members relate and the importance of families. Some seem so full of exaggeration to be hard to believe and some so very down to earth.

This was a terrific read to me. And I really wish I had an Aunt Sally like her. Life would have been even more interesting! ( )

Read this review: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100477.The_Trolls. Especially realize that this is rather dark, and you probably want to read it yourself either before or together with your child. Also realize that you need to finish it to understand it. I was thinking probably 2 stars until the end, when the pieces fit and I had time to think about all the themes.

The 'fat little mean girl' episode is indeed difficult (until she and her story are understood), but other episodes are even more difficult. Funny is only a bit of it - what it mainly is, is poignant. Neither popular cover actually fits.

Reread Dec. 2015. Agree with what I said above. Except, it's not really all that dark as I implied: don't be scared off. Beautifully written, too:

You know when you're feeling real upset, sometimes you want a nice dramatic setting to feel despair to the full? The ocean's good for that. I don't know what you folks in Ohio do."
"I like to go to the dump," said Melissa.
"I like to sit in my closet," said Amanda." ( )

Aunt Sally is the sister that their dad never talks about, but when Melissa, Amanda, and Pee Wee Anderson's parents need a babysitter for a week and the normal one is sick, the children find themselves in the charge of Aunt Sally, the oddest relative they have ever encountered. Aunt Sally lets the children dig through her luggage and play with their food, and she tells them the wildest stories of growing up on magical, mysterious Vancouver Island. There's the one about Great-Uncle Louis, who came for two weeks and stayed for six years, and the one about Aunt Hattie's mysterious romance -- and, of course, the one about the trolls. That story about the trolls, in fact, might explain a lot about their family history. But of course, trolls aren't real . . . are they?

Whenever I read a book by Polly Horvath, I know to expect a bit of weirdness and whimsy, and this book is no exception. It's a slim volume, but Horvath expertly weaves Aunt Sally's family stories through the framework of a week in the lives of the Anderson children. Aunt Sally is just the sort of crazy aunt that I would like to be, someday -- but I think I'd rather not encounter the trolls. ( )

Aunt Sally has a multitude of hilarious far-fetched family stories to tell her nieces and nephew. You'll laugh out loud. ( )