The Martians—of Orson Welles' famous 1938 broadcast—don't just queer Willie Bea's Halloween; they pretty much shatter Hamilton's keen, affecting drama of family relations. "Oh, it was something, Willie Bea thought, Sunday time and company and Halloween begging time, all in one day and night." Across the Dayton Road, at Grand and Gramp's old homestead—protected by a "big old bluegrass lawn"—the men are in the front parlor, listening to the radio and drinking highballs; the women are in the kitchen, comfortably fixing dinner; and the children, everybody's charges, are vying for the attention of beautiful, exciting Aunt Leah—three times married, rich and generous, a fortune-teller. The scene ruptures with Mama's realization of what Willie Bea has been told by her hateful cousin Little Wing, also 12: Willie Ben's baby brother has been lured away again by Little Wing's gentle-monster brother, Big Wing—who is shooting pumpkins, with bow-and-arrow, off the compliant tot's head. Willie Bea calms Mama down—sure that Little Wing has put him up to it, convinced that "Big could not miss" . . . any more than she could lose her footing on the high crossbeam in Uncle Jimmy Wing's barn. But Willie Bea's wise papa unexpectedly makes her promise not to walk the crossbeam any more (what if her little sister imitated her?) and, at his (and Gramp's) firm insistence, Uncle Jimmy takes away Big's bow-and-arrows. The solace, for Willie Bea, is Aunt Leah's discovery of a Star of Venus in her palm: "Most fine, impossible good luck. . . . You will win the world." (Why hadn't Papa married Aunt Leah, as he might?) Back home, waiting for trick-or-treat time, Willie Bea entertains her little sister and brother with radio imitations (a wonderful, period and child-true scene); she gets them ready, in make-do costumes and (scarey-to-themselves) makeup; and, then, descending in triumph—they find Aunt Leah, glamorously attired and escorted, shireking that the world is coming to an end! What follows is mainly spook-farce and thematic manipulation—which will be read differently, moreover, by kids who've learned about the Orson Welles broadcast from the jacket (or elsewhere), and those who haven't. The family, mostly terrified, huddles at Grand and Gramp's; Willie Bea, with a cohort, sneaks off on stilts to the local farm where Martians have supposedly landed—thinking that they're actually "Venus ones," come to see her; at the farm, she takes a night-working combine for the monsters. . . falls off her stilts, gets knocked out, eventually has to acknowledge her mistake, and is consoled by Aunt Leah's assurance that, nonetheless, "anything can happen" (and by Leah's gift of a much-wanted, store-bought costume for the next Halloween). In switching to special effects and juvenile-fiction platitudes, Hamilton undercuts the resonant descriptions and emotional cross-currents of her earlier, stage-worthy naturalism. For kids, it won't be fatal; but it is too bad.
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1983
ISBN: 0590120298
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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