I SEE WHAT I SEE!

by George Selden ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 1962

Six children and Jerry visit Central Park, take a subway and a ferry and arrive at Staten Island -- all on a cloud of fantasy. The lion in the zoo is ""stalking along through the tall dry grass in Africa"". The subway is the ""Confusing Cavern"". The ferry is a ""Both-Way-Boat"". Only Jerry sees things realistically, for which he is castigated by his more imaginative companions. As Jerry shatters each illus by a quiet statement of fact, the children become more and more furious. Finally they play a trick on Jerry, but prove nothing, and in the end, when Jerry compromises by ""seeing"" the New York skyline as ""a cobweb of lights"" as well as ""big old beautiful New York"", he is still the outsider. In his attempt to stress the place of the imaginative child, was it necessary for the over-sympathetic author to make his precocious little group so mean in their brainwashing and ostracizing practices? This reader's sympathy was with Jerry -- and the story seems lacking in appeal both from the literary and psychological viewpoints.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1962

Categories: CHILDREN'S