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THE SCARECROWS AND THEIR CHILD by Mary Stolz

THE SCARECROWS AND THEIR CHILD

By

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 1987
Publisher: Harper & Row

Another Stolz book for younger children: a fantasy that must be described as one of her lesser efforts. Handy and Blossom are two scarecrows who fall in love across their crowded fields and, finally, several years after their farmer's foreclosure, confess their love for one another and set up housekeeping in an abandoned barn. In due time, a baby, a kitten, arrives (scarecrows being liable to provide a variety of offspring) and is named Bohel. All's well until Handy becomes consumed with a desire to work again; with Blossom he searches to no avail until two yuppie types kidnap them to serve as Halloween decorations. Bohel feels alone and abandoned but, with the help of a broom, he is reunited with his parents at the Halloween revel-'n'-riot and they all return contentedly to their barn. With a plot as slight as this, style is all; and Stolz's delivery is uneven here. Her narrative is nicely matter-of-fact, but the characters are too often cloying when they should be wistful. As a result, there seems little point to this, especially when the climactic revel lacks the eerie sense of magic that Stolz seems to be striving for. Schwartz's illustrations are suitable without being memorable. Acceptable fare for younger readers.