SIXES AND SEVENS

by John Yeoman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 1971

While the obliviously precise text comically contradicts what is everywhere to be seen -- namely, signs of chaos -- Barnaby poles his raft placidly along, remembering ""to stop at each village on your way to Limber Lea in case anyone wants you to take anything"" and ""to look in your big box if you have any difficulties."" ""'No difficulties so far,'"" he decides, after picking up a kitten from Abigail Crumb at Harmon's Landing, and on he goes to Long-Acre Bottom where he's met by Honor Blaskett: ""'I've just two mice, the dears,' she said,/ 'As quiet as quiet can be./ But kitty will chew their ears,' she said,/ 'From here to Limber Lea.'"" ""So Barnaby looked in his big box to see what he could see, and he pulled out a sock. 'The kitten can stay in the sock from here to Limber Lea,' he said, 'and then I won't have any difficulties.'"" Barnaby blithely trusts other such prophylaxes as his troop incompatibly increases to three schoolmistresses, four schoolboys, five monkeys, six parrots. . . . Ten grasshoppers later when you're sure that the words will catch up with the pictures and at least set the raft to capsizing, the power of Barnaby's positive thinking -- about that ark-angel of a box full of things like bird-stands and drainpipes (for the eight snakes) -- works havoc on the mayhem: there's a place for everything and everything's in it by the time he safely pulls into Limber Lea, where ten cheerful people are awaiting their ""one kitten, two mice, three schoolmistresses. . ."" (etcetera). As for Barnaby, who may also have found the elaborate catechism tiring by the last round, he ""sat down on his raft and drifted all the way back home."" Rakishly of course.

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1971

Categories: CHILDREN'S