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THE DOLL IN THE GARDEN: A Ghost Story

A ghost cat leads ten-year-old Ashley through a hedge—and back to the time when her fiercely disagreeable old landlady was an unhappy child who committed a wrong she still regrets. Ashley and her newly widowed mother have just moved into Miss Cooper's upstairs apartment so that Mom can complete her dissertation. Despite Miss Cooper's unreasonable restrictions on her every move, Ashley manages to make friends with Kristi, a younger child next door; together, they explore the forbidden, overgrown garden and discover an old doll that is buried there. To her own surprise, Ashley feels compelled to take the doll for herself, hiding it from Kristi. Then the cat takes her next door, where she meets Louisa—a child who died of consumption in 1912—and learns that "Carrie" borrowed her beloved doll but never returned it. Carrie proves to be Miss Cooper, who—with the girls' help—is finally able to return the doll to her dear friend. Hahn uses her satisfyingly mysterious, spooky story to illuminate the interaction of people in the present: Ashley's abduction of the doll not only parallels the earlier one but is a manifestation of her unresolved grief; moreover, it is because Mom and Ashley have a healthy, loving relationship that each has tried to protect the other by keeping her grief to herself; the incident with the doll is the catalyst that causes them finally to confide in each other. Thoughtful, entertaining fare for the middle grades.

Pub Date: April 17, 1989

ISBN: 0618873155

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989

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TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

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I WISH YOU MORE

Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.

A collection of parental wishes for a child.

It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.

Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015

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