Like Fox's masterpiece, Desperate Characters, the main character, George, is eviscerated from a lack of meaning in his life, in spite of his job as a teacher and his decent wife. A life devoted to provisionalism, prudence, hoarding, reason, the same kind of life embraced by the narrator in Melville's "Bartleby," proves to result in a spiritually bankrupt soul. George earnestly seeks in vain for meaning and in doing so the novel sheds light on the bleakness of provisionalism as the modernist philosophy which the American middle class championed so blindly in the 1960s, the era in which this novel is written. George may fail in his search for meaning, but the novel is a triumph of vigorous prose, muscular syntax, and an uncompromising, angry critique of the smug middle-class complacency that afflicts too many of us.

Sentence for sentence, Paula Fox is the genuine article. This is the book you want to read on the subway, the commuter rail, in the coffee shop, your place of preference.

If you'd ever lingered among the crags and eddies off the coast of Maine, there is much that is endearing and enduring in this brief novel, written for near-teens, but enjoyable for all ages. A young girl spends the summer with her grandmother, an artist on an island just off the Maine coast. At first, perplexed and hurt by her parents' decision to have her stay with the often taciturn, but always loving and engaging gran, young Elizabeth learns through a young neighbor boy the importance of seizing the day and not missing a moment of life, a lesson that becomes all the more poignant by the novel's melancholy, but hopeful ending. Paula Fox is the author of the Newbery-winning SLAVE DANCER and always writes with a clarity of spirit and sparklingly unforgettable characters. Further evidence that quick reads do not have to be toss-away pap.

Western Wind is a really good book!! Elizabeth acts just like a girl would in her situation with her grandmother. She is a girl who was sent to her grandma's house for awhile and feels like her parents sent her away so they could be alone with their new son. I really recommend you read this book. It is excellent!!!!!!

Something happened on the way from childhood -- from wanting only, like Peter Rice, "to be good," or wanting to be free, or loved, or loving, or safe, or rich, or wanted-- to the widow's funeral. Like the best stories do, this one happens in the hearts and minds of its readers, borne there by the exactness of vision, the precision of craft, the sense of the messenger ever-grappling with the message. Andrea Barrett's essay is a bonus, a sensitive and intelligent reader-response that concludes with the proper advice: "The novel is itself, wholly itself; there is no way to comprehend it except to read it."

Paula Fox is an old-fashioned writer, that is, she choses every word with care; she creates characters that live on in the reader's mind, etched in the acid of recognition. Her characters are never cliched,because Fox writes them true. Their actions and emotions are not predictable because Fox writes them true. In an age of supersized novels of mall-like sameness, Paula Fox is unique. Her work can not be franchised.

Blowfish Live in the Sea is definitely one of the best books that I have ever read. Paula Fox does such a good job of describing the characters that you think that you completely know them by the time you are through. I could not put this book down. The setting and atmosphere seemed so real that I could not help but wallow in the problems of each of the melancholy characters for a while. It also offers a very real picture of what life was like back in the seventies (sixties?) for a teenage girl and her older step-brother. This book is very rare and hard-to-find, so if you can get your hands on it, go ahead and read! The mystery of the strange blowfish will haunt you forever!! (Excellent ending, I might add.)

GO READ BLOWFISH LIVE IN THE SEA.

This is the first book I ever read that admitted humans, too, are a part of nature. That single idea led me to a lot of thinking when I was 11. The intriguing plans for the main character's "village," as well as her relationships with the relatives she is staying with while her father has heart surgery kept me constantly interested. It is a very readable book, and complex at the same time.

This is a good story because it shows the love a family has for their child as she grows up. I recommend this book for all ages, because it was very funny and heartwarming...

... in the same manner as "The House That Jack Built." Great fun to read aloud. Grandpa kicks off the plot by buying Jesse a pair of shoes, which of course, need a pair of socks to go with them...and soon the whole extended family is pitching in to buy something "to go with the shoes from Grandpa." Nice, warm illustrations and the rollicking text combine to make a very pleasant reading experience. Enjoy!

I read the book Monkey Island by Paul Fox. It is a very good book. It is a book about a eleven year old boy whose mom left him all alone at their house. The boy's name is Clay. Clay stayed at his house waiting for his mom and dad to come back. When they didn't come back, Clay became a homeless boy. While out in the streets he met two people , Buddy and Calvin . They befriended him. I can't tell you any more. It is your turn to read the book. You will learn something from this book. I learned don't judge people by their looks because they might be very nice. Also, I learned we should all be helpful for the people that need more money.I can tell you if everyone helped the homeless people our world would be a better place to live where every person had food to feed themselves and their families. So read this book and see if it changes any of the things you thought of homeless people before. I tell you it will change something.

Hi man! Do I have a book for you! Do you want drama and excitement? Then I have the book for you. This book is called Monkey Island by Paula Fox. It's about this boy named Clay. His mom and dad left him for no reason. Clay was both mad and afraid so he ran away to look for his parents. Then he meets up with these two guys named Calvin and Buddy. He ends up living with them in a cardboard crate. You won't believe what happens next. When I read the book I could not stop worrying about Clay. This book is for ages 10 and up.

The book, Monkey Island, by Paula Fox, is a wonderful book. It is a book that leaves you waiting to find out what happens next. It is about a boy named Clay who is homeless. He starts living with two elderly men, Buddy and Calvin. Clay wants to find his parents badly. They left him at a hotel when he was eleven years old. If you think that a homeless person is just a dirty, worthless person, this book, I guarantee will change your thoughts. I recommend this book for fifth graders and up.

The book oNe-eyed cat is about a boy who shoots a cat in the eye and has guilts about it. This book was terribly put together and had no plot what so ever. I flunked my reading test on this book because it was so boring, it went through one ear and out the other. I do not reccomend this book. It would have been netter if there was more action other than a little boy shooting a cat in the eye and hoping he wont get in trouble.

The book One-eyed Cat by Paula Fox is is about a boy named Ned. He gets a gun for his 11th birthday. Ned's dad says that Ned is not old enough to have a gun. He hides the gun in the attic. One night Ned decides that he just has to shoot the gun. He goes up to the attic and sneaks the gun out side. All of the sudden, he sees a shadow, he presses the trigger and fires the gun. After a long time he is helping an old neighbor and he sees a cat with only one eye. Ned is sure that he shot the cat and that is why it only has one eye. Will Ned ever tell anybody so that the guilt won't be so bad? Read the book One-Eyed Cat to find out. This was an okay book.

Bang! A gun fires, footsteps, then a door shuts. One Eyed Cat by Paula Fox is an exciting story of a boy who secretly takes his air rifle from the attic. Outside he shoots it just one time. Little does he know that a cat would be his victim. This book deserves a five star rating, because it is a great story with a good moral. It is a story of how ned feels alone because of his secret about shooting thecat. In the end, sharing his secret isn't relly that bad, because many other people have secrets they are hidding, too. It is a wellwritten book with an intersting story and realistic characters. Paula Fox relly makes you feel like a part of the story. I would definitely recommend this book.

I didn't like Maurice's Room because the book had absolutely no excitement. The descriptions were very good but the story had no meaning to it. The book was very boring. I had to force myself to read this book because it was so boring. I could see that there was no point in reading a story without excitement, adventure and without any point. Maurice's Room had no problem or solution, which made it very boring, but everything was pretty good.
I DO NOT recommend Maurice's Room to anybody. I'd rate this book from one to five, five being the best, a two and a half.

I thought the story Maurice's Room should be rated a 3.5. It was good, but it just didn't catch my attention.
I liked the story because it was about a boy who had a different hobby from most boys. Maurice collected everything. When somebody collects something and keeps adding and adding to his or her collection, in the end it pays off. When someone in a book collects something, that character usually has a very different point of view about the objects he or she is collecting, and that makes the story interesting.
I disliked the book because Maurice didn't have a very busy schedule. He played trumpet, but that was a disaster. There also wasn't any excitement because he had a really boring life. I think he should have gone on some adventures; it might have made the story more exciting.

Maurice is a young boy who lives in a city. He loves to collect anything and everything. Maurice's parents don't approve of his collecting. The janitor of his apartment building, Mr. Klenk, finds stuff for Maurice to add to his collections. Because Maurice's parents are getting fed up of not being able to walk into his room thanks to the mess, they think about moving to the country, where they hope Maurice will have less things to collect. Will they move or will Maurice out grow his love for collecting? Read the book and find out.
On a scale from one to five, five being the highest, I'd give the book a four. The plot was good, but it was a bit confusing in parts. For example, it took me a while to figure out that Maurice was a boy. I also had to re-read a couple of other parts before they made sense.
The author, Paula Fox, used good descriptive words. She makes the reader actually feel like they were there, not just reading about it. I would reccomend "Maurice's Room" to kids ages 9 to 12.

I chose the book The Slave Dancer By: Paula Fox. This book wasvery interesting to me. It is about a boy who is leading a normallife, and runs an errand for his mother. While he is gone, somesailors kidnap him. When he discovers where he is, it is too late. They have already taken him into the sea. He lives on a boat, which is used to transport slaves, as a ship boy for months. Jessie, the main character, is a good-hearted boy and has trouble being involved in the slave trade. At one point, he is beaten because of his compassion towards the future African slaves. Eventually most of the slaves die, he actually watches some of them be thrown overboard, both living and dead. In the end, the boat sinks, but Jessie and a little boy that he had bonded with earlier survive. However, this book truly hits home with many thoughts of racism today. The discussion of the slaves in general is very good for a child to hear. It portrays how the slaves were treated and how young innocent white boys were made to help in the torture of the slaves. When Jessie feels compassion towards them and is beaten for it, this explains a lot. The captain and others try to make Jessie feel hatred towards these African slaves. This is the way that many people were brought up. With these negative attitudes people have, many of them are raising their children the same way. I think that Paula Fox did a wonderful job of portraying this idea. I looked at this book as a "book people" book. The book is telling the truth in every way possible. It uses great detail in describing some of the events. It even gets gory in some parts. Not many children's books do this, and get by with it. It actually has a Grimm brothers sort of approach. Fox tells things the way they were; she does not "soften" them up for the children. The other side, however, would say the book was not fit for children due to the gore of it and even some language. In an article written by Sarah Hinlicky entitled "Don't Write About Race", she discusses the topic of race in writing, including children's literature. Hinlicky gives many good reasons why people don't write about racial issues. Hinlicky says that one of the main reasons is fear. She says that "the wise writer observes the rules and politely declines to write about race." This keeps them from being tortured and ridiculed for writing about racial issues. In the end of the article she proposes a very powerful statement: Black America and white America are different cultures, these cultures still distrust one another. Moving across color lines also means moving across culture lines...Maybe there's an answer I've found, but I think I'd better quit now, since I'm not supposed to be writing about race in the first place. This statement is important in saying how people think they aren't supposed to discuss the topic. I think it is almost challenging for people to look at it in Hinlicky's light. I think I take a book people stand. Children need to know the truth in the history of acts such as this. They cannot keep the truth from the children, or that will lead to children who have racial tension. Many children today are misinformed of this part of history. Both black children and white children are confused with their facts in this matter. Fox describes Jessie's story very well. Jessie is made to feel hatred towards these slaves. He is given no choice. This is the way many children are today. They believe what they hear from their parents, teachers, and books. Some of this information may be true, but most of it just confuses the children even more. The Slave Dancer should be an important part of education everywhere in America. It tells the story well, of both the slaves and the people who were forced to help in their trade. Hinlicky's article would also be a good article to teach children as a reference to The Slave Dancer.

Do you want to read a captivating story, about a boy who was forced to play his fife for the slaves on a slaveship? On a boat called The Moonlight, this is exactly what happened. Thirteen-year-old Jessie Bollier lived during the time of slavery and took an interest in the slaves. He was barely surviving, with little money, and had to work to provide for his family. Although his mother was hardworking, she made little money and could hardly support her family. Sadly, his father had previously passed away. Jessie played his fife on the streets of New Orleans to make a profit, not knowing he had a secret admirer.
Then one night while running an errand, he suddenly disappeared. To where? Nobody knows. And nobody knows that he is on a long journey, on which he will meet a great friend.
The Slave Dancer, by Paula Fox, won the John Newbery Medal, as well as the hearts of many readers from ages 9 through 13. Her other books include Lily and the Lost Boy, The Village by the Sea, and the Newbery Medal winner One-Eyed Cat.
The Slave Dancer is full of suspense which can make your stomach turn. But, the wonderful ending will touch your heart and win you over.

The story is about a boy named Jessie. He gets taken on a slave ship. He is taken because he plays the flute for the black slaves. He meets the captain, Captain Cawthorne, who is cruel. They finally sell the slaves to the Spaniards. The American ship sees them and destroys it. He meets a black boy, they become friends, then sometime later he goes back home.
I liked the book a lot. It was good because it told how hard it was to be out sea. It told of how slaves were abused there. It also told of how Jessie suvived this cruel mishap.It was very interesting. I wqas really engrossed in it. It was exciting and full of adventure.
I chose this book because of the cover. It really grabbed my attention. Also that I read the back of the book. It really got me interested in it. It was also because it was a John Newbery Medal winning book. Paula Fox is one of my favorite authors too.