Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
The Orphan Game
Barbara Cohen · 1989
66/100
👎 Skip It
Barbara Cohen has real warmth and a reliable feel for family dynamics, and the orphan-game conceit is inventive enough to carry the book's episodic structure. But this mid-list title from a solid author has aged out of wide availability, Miranda as a character never fully escapes being a device, and the narrative lacks a strong enough arc to make it memorable. Worth reading if you encounter it; not worth seeking out.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety97
substance60
craft68
originality62
accuracy75
hype65
age-fit78
human-eye62
Penny’s verdict66
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