THE PERFECT PEACH

by Stephen Schwartz ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 1977

Schwartz's mock-heroic, rhymed tale of overprotected, eight-year-old Pee-chee, an emperor's son who runs off on turtleback to the mountain of the gods, is impeccably polished; and there is comical effect in his short, extra lines and in the extravagance of Pee-chee's mischief. At play in the heavens, he causes the river to dry up, giant vegetables to grow, and the winds to rage; then he stuffs himself at the gods' table and becomes, ""or so the stories teach,"" what he eats-a giant peach. Typical of Schwartz's tone and manner is this response to Pee-chee's emergence from the peach some time after his return home: ""And his mother wept: 'Oh, Pee-chee,/How we worried! How we feared!/For the wind and rain and weather/Ever since you disappeared,/Have been so weird!'"" Lubin's showy, multi-patterned paintings are similarly mock-solemn and oriental in an exotic, fairy-tale manner--but more heavily so. Like Adams' Tyger Voyage (1976), the most comparable recent production, this is clever but idle, too much of and for itself.

Pub Date: April 21, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1977

Categories: CHILDREN'S