From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3-- Grandfather and Thomas, who appeared in Stolz's picture book, Storm in the Night (Harper, 1988), return in a liberally illustrated beginning chapter book. Cummings confines herself to watercolors in shades of gray on white. On almost every page are depictions of the actions or ornamental motifs. Grandfather and Thomas are a family of two, "semi-poor" and dependent on food that they catch or produce themselves, plus their cat, Ringo. They begin the day by fishing for trout, and finish it with a game of cards (Go fish, of course) and a story. The before-you-were-born hurricane, the grandfather as a small boy himself listening to the stories of his own grandfather, the line of ancestors leading back to ancient African cities, the fossils preserved in the limestone of long dried-up seas--all these are the elements of a single summer day. Colorful details of life at the seashore abound: hummingbirds in the bougainvillea, the seawall rocks at low tide, blowfish and flounder, sea oats and sand spurs, coquinas and herons. Stolz evokes the spirit of childhood with graceful description and metaphor. At day's end, Thomas glimpses his own future, recalling this present day as a past golden-time, telling tales to an as yet unborn child. Readers will hope their own futures hold more stories of these two. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Mary Stolz published her first book for young people in 1950 with Ursula Nordstrom and never looked back. Since then, she has written more than sixty books, been published in nearly thirty languages, and received two Newbery Honors (for Belling the Tiger and The Noonday Friends). The Bully of Barkham Street is the sequel to A Dog on Barkham Street (also available from HarperTrophy). Ms. Stolz lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
