Customer Reviews

Phoebe's Revolt (A Sunburst Book)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first checked Phoebe's Revolt out of the local library from a randomly selected basket of books my pre-schoolers chose. My boys loved the story so much that before we returned it to the library they had most of it memorized. Few children's books grab my attention enough to buy one copy, but Phoebe's Revolt contained so many elements I thought important to convey to children I immediately bought several copies to give as gifts for the beloved children in my life. In a delightful tale of an eight year old girl who refuses to be dressed in lace and bows, the author uses rhyme and psychology to portray how Phoebe's struggle eventually leads to a compromise. The reader is lulled by the rhythm of the story and yet kept in suspense by Phoebe's antics until in the end Phoebe and her parents understand each other. It is a must for every child's library.

Stubborn Phoebe learns a gentle lesson about getting her own way. Written in rhyme, the book will hold the attention of your smaller readers, without speaking down to older children.

And if you think a child can't understand concepts like passive resistance you've clearly never been a child nor had a child!

Phoebe, eight years old in 1904, is fed up ribbons, ruffles, sashes, curls and wants only to dress like her father.

Her mother's solution is to throw a party to show her how silly she is, but that backfires miserably when Phoebe simply refuses to get dressed. Her father solves the problem - first having her wear a spare outfit of his, then reminding her mother of her own misery in her own clothes at that age. And there's a happy ending - her mother concedes the point and has a few outfits made for her daughter that are more practical.

This is a lengthy book, with complicated words; and the cause of Phoebe's distress is likely to go right over the heads of the younger children. As well, the black-and-white drawings may not hold their attention. Phoebe is eight, and this book is definitely better suited for the older end of the 5-8 group.

Girls who enjoyed having "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" read aloud to them will enjoy following on their own the "rebellion" of Phoebe Euphemia Brandon Brown, a daughter of wealth in 1904 New York City, who one June day, at age eight, "loudly said she hated bows/And roses on her slipper toes/And dresses made of fluff and lace...And *everything* to do with girls." Her pretty, proper cousin Grace she calls "Prissy Prig," and her one desire is to dress like her father, "in simple white and sober black/Unornamented front and back." Her father, pleased and amused by her pretensions, calls her "a novel child," but her mother, aunt, and governess are soon in despair--especially when, with eight little guests waitng downstairs for a promised party, Phoebe goes on strike and refuses to get out of the bathtub "Unless I wear my father's clothes!"

Told in rhyming couplets and accompanied by excellent (though uncredited) pen-and-ink sketches full of early-20th-century detail, Phoebe's story should charm young female revolutionaries of any age (even the older sisters who could read "Calpurnia" on their own). And readers will be delighted by Mr. Brown's clever solution to his daughter's dilemma--for Phoebe does, in some sense, get her way in the end.