ONE SAD DAY

by Bernice Kohn ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 24, 1972

The heroes of this ill-conceived antiwar fable are a populace of gentle, lavender-clad humanoid blobs called the Spots whose world is a paradise of perfume and honey. You know the poor Spots are doomed as soon as you enter the faraway land of the Stripes, who hustle to work and send their children to school and erect magnificent buildings; and sure enough the Stripes decide without any ado that the Spots must learn to live the same way, and the result is a war that goes on until all the people of both lands are gone. The last double-page is all black except for a peace sign floating like a moon over the phrase ""war kills"" -- hardly news to anyone old enough to understand the words, though the limb pictures of ludicrously klunked-out blobs do nothing to drive home the point. Any attempt to derive further meaning from the story is pointless. Whether the subliminal message is that two different cultures cannot coexist or that advanced Western-style civilizations must inevitably destroy the world, Mrs. Kohn offers no alternatives -- only a pretentiously simplistic scenario of doom.

Pub Date: March 24, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking-Third Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1972

Categories: CHILDREN'S