DINAH, BLOW YOUR HORN

by Jack M. Bickham ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 23, 1979

Nice kid rescues unhappy adults--in a turn-of-the-century pleasantry that's not quite grown-up but as mind-unboggling as a Disney movie. Thirteen-year-old Bobby moves with his parents and sisters to the grimy railroad town of Preacherville because Dad, who lost a hand in the service of the Harriston & Ohio, is to clerk at the branch office. Bobby is appalled by his father's meek acquiescence to the tyranny of Jones, the vicious branch manager who brings in strong-arm men from the infamous Hobart-Grimes ""detective agency"" to erase dissent in the company town. But Bobby's dearest friend, the mysterious Mr. Flanagan (is he management or labor?), builds him a pigeon house and, best of all, teaches him Morse code. So, in Preacherville's darkest hour, it will be Bobby's dit-dah on the telegraph--plus the Daddy Warbucks beneficence of the railroad owner--that brings on the big, happy doo-dah day. (Even Bobby's kidnapped pigeons return.) Juvenile--but appealing, and properly sooty, with a spirited evocation of the steam and clang of the roundhouse.

Pub Date: March 23, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION