MISS OSBORNE-THE-MOP

by Wilson Gage ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 18, 1963

Wacky and wonderful magic emanate from the unlikeliest witch of the 1960's -- an overweight, bespectacled eleven-year-old -- Jody Ransome. She is the tearfully damp and unwelcome summer guest of her cousin, Dill Tracy. They share a mutual (and typically cousinlike) antipathy until they stumble on Jody's gift for turning people and things into something else and back on command --magazines into cakes, leaves into sodas, Dill into a squirrel. It's all very nervous work and the worst moments come when they connive to get their chores done a la The Sorcerer's Apprentice by turning a dustmop into a walking, talking (and as it turns out) task mistress. Before this disaster can be turned back, Jody's power departs. their attempts to keep the sensitive, schoolmarmish string mop out of sight and sound of the adult world are wildly funny. The dialogue, situations and word/sight gags are laugh-alouds. As the mop drives them from one cleanup task to the next, overweight Jody and pesty Dill submerge their differences and their personalities in common cause and find that some magic has worked on themselves as they work for others. Whole sections of this will be preeminently suitable for book-talk reviews.

Pub Date: March 18, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1963

Categories: FICTION