MINE!

by David Lord Porter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 1981

Described on the jacket as ""a little parable about wanting"" which shows ""a world that is lost through greed and regained by sharing,"" this begins simply and aptly, with ""a little boy who wanted everything. . . . And he wailed and blubbered and glowered and sulked until he got it. But when he got it, he soon forgot it and wanted something else. . . ."" It goes on smartly, in the same vein, as the pictures, also plain and simple, become more imaginative, showing the boy's ever more outrageous and impossible acquisitions. Then Porter gets a little tricky, with the little boy consuming ""even the white of the page of his own story."" But okay, this puts him in the dark, where he has our attention. At this point, though, the story becomes sermon. The stuffed bear discarded on page one shows up to make the two of them ""we""; and the little boy, suddenly catching on (though we're not told how or why), brings back the whole world--""our Moon,"" ""our stars,"" ""our trees and sea and breezes,"" ""our in our out our up our down,"" etc.--by invoking them in the plural rather than the singular possessive. A miss, then, but regrettably so, as Porter shows some originality and a feel for the picture-book form.

Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1981

Categories: CHILDREN'S