JASPER The Drummin' Boy

'Updating' this 1947 story has made it unexceptionable (i.e. not degrading to blacks) though hardly modern; but if nobody'd contrive such a dramatic triumph for a would-be drummer today. neither has it lost popular appeal. Jasper is a disappointment to his mother who dreams of him as a concert pianist, a nuisance lo the neighbors (who'd like some quiet), a particular trial to leacher and minister (at church he distracts the choir)--but to Stomp King ""the greatest drummer in the business,"" who hears him play at a street fair, he has Talent. . . and instantaneously an invitation to perform at the Regal, even to try out King's special drums. Disgrace turns to adulation, and Dad. who's been sympathetic underneath, gels ready to dig out Grandpa's drumming medal. It's laughable maybe, but lovable--especially earlier when Jasper, dreaming, steps into the picture of Grandpa with Duke Oliver's Windy City Band and is welcomed by the boys. (The illustrations not inappropriately have a Norman Rockwell air.)