BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING

A lesson; a dull, hackneyed lesson (growing out of a contrived situation besides). Sara has been chosen ""to do the class painting for the art show tomorrow."" Miss Weinstein expects ""something wonderful""--but, says Sara to her mother, ""I don't have even one idea."" This takes Sara through the evening: trying to paint ""the earth--and the sky--and the day and the night, and-the-summer-and-the-winter-and-everything""; not knowing how to begin; getting conflicting advice from everyone at dinner; and, finally, being reminded by her mother that ""you can only begin at the beginning."" She'd originally thought to paint the tree outside her window; now, as they look out the window, that's it. The black-and-white crayon drawings strain for a little satire and a little frenzy; the text tries for some quasi-Ruth-Krauss, patterned speech. It all falls flat.