The
best kind of children’s books I love to read/review are the ones which teaches
its young readers important life lesson in an entertaining manner, while at the
same time doesn’t hit its readers over the head with the lesson.
Patricia
Lowry or Patty Cakes as she’s known to her friends is a sweet girl who unfortunately
has the tendency to be blame for things she didn’t do. Being a child of the
1950’s, this became somewhat nostalgic for me as I remembered watch a TV series
segment of the Mickey Mouse Club entitled “Annette” in which Annette Funicello
played a country bumpkin living with her upperclass relatives. She gets picked
on by her classmates and at a party gets accused a stealing an expensive
necklace worn by her school’s most liked and admired girl during a party, which
ruined her existence. At the end of this series, several months later, at
another party, the necklace is finally found when someone is asked to play a
song which had been played at the first party. The girl who had blamed Annette
for the theft apologize, and the two became good friends.
When
Patty’s brother, Thomas, loses his “treasured” lacrosse ball naturally she’s
the one who gets blamed for its disappearance. An interesting thing is, Patty
seems to be able to skillfully reduce serious problems when she’s faced with
them. However, she apparently can’t do the same when it involves him. Needless
to say, at the end of the story the missing lacrosse ball is found in a place
no one seemed to bother to look previously.
Ms.
Carr’s simplistic writing style in this book, reminds me of the Dick and Jane
reader I read in first grade, which lends itself perfectly to the way many
children talk amongst themselves and brings them into the story and the
important lesson it attempts to communicate.
For
the reasons I’ve attempted to address in the above, I’m happy to give this book
5 STARS.
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