Lob

Newbery has stepped into timelessness with her short novel, ostensibly for middle-grade readers, entitled LOB (2010). It is a charming retelling of the Green Man legend, rich and playfully reinterpreted, which also has a contemporary thread

Oxford Companion to Children's Literature

[Linda's] eponymous Lob, made of rain and wind, of time gone and time waiting, embodies regeneration

The Irish Times

Lob will sneak under the skin of cynical early teens

Observer

A tale told as much by Pam Smy's black and white line drawings as by Newbery's quiet, bright, clear prose. The book belongs in that English tradition of writing for children in which relationships, time and nature are explored through gardens

Books For Keeps

An exquisite novel for the more sensitive seven to nine-year-olds

Sunday Telegraph

I found I was thinking about it long after I'd turned the final page, because it's wonderful . . . It's a wonderful story of trusting and believing in the unknown and keeping a legacy alive. You'll remember to look for Lob whenever you hear a rustling of leaves behind you

Guardian

Laced with poems, and beautifully illustrated, this is a magical story of believing in the unknown

Guardian

Linda Newbery tells her story beautifully, evoking empathy and emotion without ever straying into sentimentality

The Scotsman

Newbery holds the reader with her endearing characters, evocative scene-setting and poetic language . . . An uplifting, enchanting book

Oxford Times

One of the most gifted writers around must surely be Linda Newbery and Lob, her latest novel for younger readers, is the kind of book that will inspire in children a deep love of nature and in adults a yearning for the wonderment of childhood

Independent on Sunday

The mystical and beautiful fable is one of my favourite titles of this year

The Bookseller

There is something intensely comforting about this book that I'm sure parents will enjoy as well as children. Especially if they are gardeners!

The Bookbag

There's something timeless about this lovely story, not only in its theme, which links us back to generations past, but also in the telling of it: elegant, sedate, beautifully crafted, filled with a warm kind of hope and old-fashioned charm

The Ultimate Book Guide

Very young gardeners will love Lob, by Linda Newbery, the story of Lucy, Grandpa Will and the mysterious green man who lives in his garden

The Irish Times