Facile would be the best adjective to apply overall to these ten stories, and only Updike's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth" (recently anthologized in Spinner's Live and Learn, KR, p. 693, J-241) and Doris Lessing's "Flight" escape that designation entirely. Elizabeth Taylor's moody "Red-Letter Day" and James Gould Cozzens' "Total Stranger" both approach the generation gap from the far side, and there are better stories about a girl's fear and repression of sexuality (some of them in Spinner's Feminine Plural, KR, 1972) than Jessamyn West's rather contrived "Crimson Ramblers of the World, Farewell." Nathaniel Benchley's "Father's Day," and Kurt Vonnegut's "The Lie" — a predictable but clever demonstration of the fact that, when the chips are down, the old rich are more snobbish than the parvenus — are both entertaining, but only Joan Merrill Gerber's "How Love Came to Grandmother," Elizabeth Enright's "The Playground," and possibly, Bates' "The Small Portion" struck us as having more to do with the problems of growing up than the tristesse of aging. Individual readers might find something to latch onto here; to expect more than that would be overpraise indeed.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1973
ISBN: 0060269537
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1973
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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