THE WORLD'S GREATEST EXPERT ON ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS CRYING

by Barbara Bottner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 1984

Excise Bottner's jokey cartoons, and this is a pretty solid send-up of today's cosmopolitan know-it-all kid--with likable characters, amusing incidents, and smart plotting. Assuming, that is, you have no objection to fifth-grade romance: Jesse does care about Tucker, and her single greatest resentment of spectacular newcomer Katherine Ann--who outshines everyone at everything--is that she seems to have turned Tucker's head too, with her solar-power expert father and her own, Jesse-displacing help with Tucker's solar-powered doghouse for the class ""We Are Wonderful Day."" Jesse and best-friend Rosey, a cheeky, brainy man-hater, quickly decide Katherine Ann is a pain; and when the whole class comes around, ""It's either the Living Death or the Mirror Effect"" for K.A.--the silent treatment or exaggerated, ludicrous aping. (Very funny too.) Does Katherine Ann care? When she professes not to, calling the kids ""small-town nothings,"" Jesse breaks the ban on speaking to her (""You do care, and you know it""), bringing the Living Death down on herself. But ultimately she's able to prove to Rosey that she's right--Katherine Ann is the victim of her mother's aspirations--and, pre-armed with Tucker's reassurance, she effects a class-reconcilaition and Katherine Anne's release from maternal bondage. (To her mother's horror and shame, K.A. is a secret rock saxophone addict.) Zesty and cheering, all the way to Rosey's grudging link-up with fellow-chess-buff Harold.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION