POOR BOY, RICH BOY

One day Coco was a poor boy. The next day he was rich. This is how it happened."" And so we are introduced to a baby found during ""the war"" and raised by a poor woman who tells him that, as his real parents might someday turn-up, ""I must not care too much for you. You must not care too much for me."" His parents don't come, but his rich Uncle Paul does, with news that Coco's parents died in the war. Thus begins Coco's ""rich"" life, which is marred at first by Paul's showering him with purchased gifts and his blindness to the sensitive Coco's real wishes. With a captured wild horse as the last unwanted gift, bringing Paul's first sign of understanding, this has the sentimental simplicity of many of Bulla's stories--and, like the others, more narrative interest and emotional grab than are usually found in easy readers.