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HELP, PINK PIG! by C.S. Adler

HELP, PINK PIG!

By

Pub Date: March 15th, 1990
Publisher: Putnam

This overly ambitious sequel to Good-Bye, Pink Pig (1986) finds Amanda's new life in Los Angeles troubled. Lonelier than ever, she is afraid she is a disappointment to her mother, who is preoccupied with an unsatisfactory romance. A neighbor girl who has been abandoned by her father bullies both Amanda and another child. Turning to the Little World with the Pink Pig offers only further problems as the Dark Knight terrorizes that community. However, Amanda courageously faces all this adversity and manages to achieve some measure of resolution. Adler's attempts to meld fantasy and reality are only partially successful here. She fails either to delineate adequately or to maintain the rules of her fantasy. The story is further hampered by a plethora of minor inconsistencies and by too many characters and subplots, all suffering from inadequate development. Most of the adults here are self-centered, callous, or incompetent; many of the children are equally unendearing And although the reader is given some hope that Amanda's future will be a little brighter, the overall tone is depressing.