MR. ARCHIMEDES' BATH

by Pamela Allen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 1980

Mr. Archimedes' bath always overflowed. And Mr. Archimedes always had to clean up the mess""--despite the fact that he always shares his bath with a kangaroo, a goat, and a wombat. And so Mr. Archimedes decides to find out ""where all this water is coming from."" As one by one, then all together, the animals are removed from the tub, Mr. Archimedes notes that the water still goes up and clown but doesn't overflow. ""Eureka! I've found it!"" he shouts when he discovers that the level after he gets out is just the same as before he got in. ""We make the water go up,"" he continues as they all get in and the tub overflows again. ""There are just too many of us in the bath, that's all."" But this obvious observation is really not much to scream about. Allen's Archimedes stops where the real Archimedes began in the official story; and Allen doesn't even draw any conclusions or generalizations from the phenomenon she does have him catch on to. The menage as pictured seems to be having a lot of fun jumping in and out of the round footed tub with flabby, pink, Mr. A.; but where's the fun of making a dummy out of Archimedes for children who never heard of him in the first place? At first, Allen seems to be onto a good thing here, but she lets it go down the drain.

Pub Date: Feb. 18, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1980

Categories: CHILDREN'S