SKINNY

The author of Tyler, Wilkin and Skee (1963, p. 8, J-8) presents another regional sketch- this time of an orphaned eleven-year-old in the southern cotton country. Skinny is perfectly happy to work in Miss Bessie's hotel and pick up a little reading know-how on the side. A suitor of Miss Bessie comes and goes; a carnival comes and goes, while Skinny ambles on through each hot day. Finally the law forces him to go to the orphanage forty miles away when school begins. Skinny is sad to leave Miss Bessie and his kitchen friends, but in a letter written a few months later to Miss B., he admits that he is happy with his new schoolmates and surroundings. Skinny is likable enough, but the story line is so thin that few are likely to enjoy the blazing summer.