CONFESSIONS OF AN ONLY CHILD

As in previous children's books by Norma Klein, the concern is all with grownup matters -- this time mother's pregnancy, her loss of the baby, and later her successful delivery of another. Here however the parents' personalities blend into the background and it is nine year-old Toe's ambivalent feelings about the prospective sibling that come to the fore. The episodic story is younger, sweeter and simpler than Mom the Wolf Man and Me (KR, 1972) or even It's Not What You Expect (KR, 1973), suffering somewhat from the noted blandness of the fictional happy family but honest and likable enough in detailing Toe's everyday thoughts and conversations -- about her new Indian tent, Dad's spaghetti, or friend Libby's pesty baby sister -- between the obstetrical reports.