THE SURPRISE PLACE

This fills in a niche as a primer -- second and third grade level of interest and vocabulary difficulty -- with enough action and brief enough episodes to carry reader interest for that age group. There's a brother and sister relationship that is wholesome and natural; there are animals; there's credible adventure. But it hasn't the real feel of Nova Scotis that, for instance Alice Dalgliesh has in her Sandy Cove stories. It might be any sea and any rocky country near the sea along the New England ceast. And the characters seem a bit sugar and spice and everything nice. We could do with more spice. Lois Leneki line drawings seem a trifle wooden.