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THE MONSTER IN THE THIRD DRESSER DRAWER by Janice Lee Smith

THE MONSTER IN THE THIRD DRESSER DRAWER

By

Pub Date: Oct. 7th, 1982
Publisher: Harper & Row

'I do not,' said Adam Joshua, 'want to move./'It is not,' said Adam Joshua, 'my idea. And it is not a very good one.' 'Nevertheless,' said his mother, and she kept the move moving all around him."" So begins the first of these six episodes concerning Adam Joshua--who, like Christopher Robin, is invariably addressed and referred to by his double given name. (Likewise his baby sister, when she comes along, is always Amanda Jane.) Besides resisting the move and resenting the new baby's temporarily sharing his room (though the first night that her own is ready he brings her back for company), Adam Joshua wrestles impatiently with a loose tooth, battles a monster when his parents are out and he's left with a sitter, and gets to know old Great-Aunt Emily who isn't as mean as she seemed. All these little pieces swing pertly along in hoppity rhythms, filtering a child's cute expressions through a fond adult amusement. (Here's more of the I-won't-move refrain: ""'I, for one, am not going to move,' he said each night as his mother tucked him in bed. She snapped out the light. 'I, for one, am definitely not going to,' said Adam Joshua, all by himself in the dark."") The touch is light, the tone and the rhythm ably sustained, and the likely audience (reading-aloud mother at the head of the list) may well be enchanted. To the rest of us, it's a shade too precious.