SOMEBODY GO AND BANG A DRUM

by Rebecca Caudill ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1974

When Julian and Edie Garth got married they decided to have two children of their own and adopt two more, but there seemed to be so many Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and racially mixed American children in need of parents that they ended up with one of their own and seven adopted. ""Closely based on a real family,"" Caudill's account (it can't be called a story) is fictionalized to the extent of supplying conversations on the arrival and adjustment of each child (""Goody! Goody! When will we get her? . . . Mommie! Mommie! Emily smiled!"") but reads like a handbook on happy families -- an impression Hearne's pamphlet-style drawings only reinforces. Nevertheless -- even though we feel there must have been one morning when feeding baby Angela didn't set Julian up for the day, or one occasion on which a child forgot his eagerness to ""move over and make room"" for a new sister or brother -- the Garths' life project is remarkable enough in itself to keep children reading.

Pub Date: April 1, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION