2006-07-10 Is there anything to this book?

I'm giving my own opinion on (yet another) completely overrated book, which is beginning to be something of a personal cause.
Sure, the book can be touching, but, where on earth is the story? Amazon recommended this to me because I purchased 'The Dark Is Rising Sequence' by Susan Cooper, and of the two, the latter is so vastly superior as to render this superfluous to the collections of any reading enthusiast.
I'll try to sum up the story. Four children, each of different generations, and generally little vagrants at that, doing kids things, and then deciding what vocations they want to do when they're older. And, thats it!
Okay, so people will argue that its a charming depiction of four eras, but it takes more than that to hold my interest. Nor was I enraptured by the charm of the characters. In fact, some of the rhetoric had me positively stumped, not being from near Chorley in the 19th-early 20th century.
Perhaps I'm shallow, perhaps it is my own cynicism that turned me against books like this, but I want an actual story, not a narrative of a group of malcontents. My advice, steer clear or brace for disappointment.
But, hey, what do I know? You might like it. But if your expecting a thrilling childrens fantasy, forget it.