Historical April 1985 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Two of our picture books are too hot for words. Picnic, by Emily McCully, tells in pictures only how a mouse gets lost when her family piles into the red pick-up truck to go on a picnic on a warm summer day.
In a family of nine children, one or two could understandably be overlooked for a little while.
The mice have a great day eating, playing baseball, swimming, singing, and taking snapshots until they notice that someone is missing. Clementina’s Cactus, by the awardwinning author/illustrator Ezra Jack Keats, is a colorful wordless book that shows how ugliness may be only skin deep. Clementina has high hopes for the unpromising lone cactus sitting in the desert near her cabin.
A change in the weather brings about a remarkable change in the cactus. Is there anything worse than babysitting all summer long for your four-yearold brother?
Not having funny stories like this to read is worse. Angel’s brother, Rags, earned his nickname with the piece of blanket he dragged everywhere.
Now Angel has to drag Rags with her everywhere, every day.
The two of them cannot keep out of trouble. Sticking their heads in the flour sack so they can look like Marie Antoinette and King Louis proves to be very disappointing. Trying to clean up with water is even worse.
In a daringly rebellious mood, Angel and Rags decide to break some laws. First they use the rug cleaner on glass just because the label specifically forbids it.
They then boldly remove the “do not remove” tags on every mattress and pillow in the house.
Each episode is not only delightful, but easy to read. Backyard Angel by Judy Delton will warm up your spring and summer.
In Shadows Across the Sand, an exciting mystery for older readers, sixteenyear-old Billie Lowe looks forward to a sunny, carefree Christmas in Hibiscus, Florida, with her relatives.
The small, close-knit community of retired entertainers is shocked by a series of very suspicious accidents and burglaries. Undaunted by a group of menacing teenagers, uncooperative police, and threatening notes, Billie solves the mystery with the help of her two friends from New York.
The heat in this story is the work of a midnight arsonist.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1985.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1985_04.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
