SEVEN KISSES IN A ROW

by Patricia MacLachlan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1983

Seven little episodes marking the warm relationship that develops when Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Elliot come to stay with Emma and her older brother Zachary while the children's parents spend rive days at an ""eyeball meeting."" (Their father is an eye doctor.) In the first episode Emma runs away--to nice neighbor Mrs. Groundwine's house, her habitual running-away destination--because the Aunt and Uncle don't get up in the morning and provide her accustomed divided grapefruit and seven kisses in a row. Zach, fetching her home, gives her 21 kisses to compensate. In the last episode, Uncle Elliot wakens Emma with the requisite grapefruit and kisses and everyone has breakfast in Emma's bed--while Emma awards Uncle Elliot a passing mark in fatherhood, a role she's been coaching him for as Aunt Evelyn is expecting a baby. Meanwhile Emma picks up the concept of ""Different Strokes"" from Uncle Elliot. In another chapter, the whole household, dog and all, ends up sleeping in a backyard tent to which Emma has repaired to escape the ""Night Rumbles"" in her room; and in ""Love and Marriage"" Aunt Evelyn embarrasses Uncle Elliot (as well he might be) with anecdotes from his romantic courtship. Like his declarations of affection, the whole story is a bit too cute and facile in its tenderness to elicit much more than a Valentine-card response.

Pub Date: March 1, 1983

ISBN: 0064402312

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION