HORRIBLE HEPZIBAH

by Edna Mitchell Preston ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 22, 1971

Too much text, too much time passing, too many extra episodes. . . and one more point for the side of the devil in the person of a ne plus ultra naughty girl. ""So happy they almost bust"" (sic: misprint at the outset), Nice Mr. and Mrs. Smith name their baby after Rich Old Aunt Hepzibah with ""'bushels and bundles of money'"" in mind. ""'She is going to be a perfect little lady'"" -- but ""Yoicks and hoity toity did they ever get fooled."" Hepzibah is indeed a ""holy terror"" and her encounter with the monstrous Horrible Ugly is inspired; not so, however, her parents' presentation of next-door Beautiful Vanilla as their daughter (shades of Elvira Everything) when Rich Old Aunt visits after ten (?) years. Aunt and niece though are two of a kind and this could well have ended with their ""having jolly times together being mean and nasty""; instead, innocent Beautiful Vanilla is dragged back into the act and tossed into their dungeon then made to carry that coveted money to Nice Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Sometimes, with support from the in-keeping pictures, Mrs. Preston's sense of sound and fantasy dulls the undercutting edge, but only sometimes -- and here's a case where even a small loss of control or cohesiveness makes a big difference.

Pub Date: March 22, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1971

Categories: CHILDREN'S