Dorrie wrote this book herself as a school assignment which helps us to excuse her indulgence in the material luxuries of being an only child—Dad's Caesar salads, Christopher Parkening playing Villa-Lobos on the stereo, a two bedroom apartment overlooking the Golden Gate bridge, and there's even an ingenuous admission that the adult world has pegged Dorrie as both an MGM (mentally gifted minor) and an obnoxious brat. Things change rapidly when Mom's long hoped for second child turns into triplets—placid Deirdre, screaming Randolph and hungry Raymond. The family, now double, moves into a rundown old house and onto a new regime of TV dinners and petty squabbles. And the new neighborhood brings them Genevieve and Harold. . . she's a big help with Randolph and both kids sort of attach themselves to the family after their mother abandons them. Dorrie, having lost her parents' attention is knee deep in self pity though under the circumstances it's hard to blame her. And you'll be ready to appreciate the cathartic fantasy ending she writes to her own story, which has Dorrie discovering twelve bodies and a treasure buried in the backyard and being adopted by an admiring police inspector who will train her to become a great detective. Dorrie's teacher marks her down for this conclusion (Mom explains that fiction is supposed to end with the loose ends tied up) but we find it marvelously liberating. Otherwise her garrulous precocity and, we expect, the reader's sheer relief at having been spared sibling problems of this magnitude, make this an empathic entertainment. Sachs has come closer to the homely truth of family life without resorting to the slightly frenzied humor one finds here, but, big vocabulary and all, Dorrie is still individual enough to survive such a whopping adjustment.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0380761394
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1975
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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