ELVIRA EVERYTHING

by Frank Asch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 26, 1970

Anything but the zany goodwill of George's Store, the life-affirmation of Linda. Jet-sledding in with Santa on the jacket is Elvira Everything--or Little Orphan Annie as a mechanical doll. ""She could do everything that a kid could do. . . and more"" but the little girl's delight fast diminishes--E.E. is a scene-stealer, worse, a parent-stealer. To mother's ""Isn't Elvira sweet?"" when she's proffering cocktails and pipe, father replies ""Sweet? Why she's the ALL-AMERICAN girl. . . er, I mean Doll."" Worst perhaps, the little girl has done nothing to merit the displacement that climaxes in her being sent to bed while her parents present Elvira to visitors as their daughter. Understandably, she runs away. . . and incomprehensibly, her parents fetch her--""I guess because they love me"" though there's nothing to attest to it. To their ""be nice"" she responds by giving Elvira ""a nice bath""--""And she rusted so nicely that she popped her wiring."" Instead of another Elvira Everything she'd have a teddy bear. Instead of her initial wish for a teddy bear she's gotten a monster--and children have gotten (if anything) the implication that parents prefer a paper doll to a real-live girl, or as per the cocktails-and-pipe spread, a toady to a heedless TV viewer. Which may not be unfounded but is certainly misdirected, and represents a prime talent warped.

Pub Date: Aug. 26, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1970

Categories: CHILDREN'S