Perrin provides a series of essays on "great" (but not well-known) children's books. I really enjoyed reading his insights (I turned first to the essays on books I knew and loved as a child, as I would suspect most readers would) but later read the rest of the essays. It's clear that Perrin loves literature, and loves reading to children. I was especially taken by his discussion of Margery Sharp's books about Miss Bianca (the source material for the Disney Rescuers movies, but the books are far better than the movies). He points out how Sharp included little parodies of Regency novels in her writing - how she made her writing complex beyond what a child would notice (i.e., the child would not say "Oh, she's parodying Thackerey here"). The general thread that runs through the essays is that *good* children's writers do not write down to children, they write "across" to them, and include enough complexity of plot or language or syntax that the child is not patronized (and in fact, can go back and reread the books as an adult and not say "What did I ever see in that??" This book would be a wonderful gift for new parents.

One of the shadowy, half-remembered books in the back of my mind is a big hardcover in a scratchy green cloth binding, a book called Thursday's Child by Noel Streatfeild. I despair of ever finding that book again, because this one, an out-of-print British paperback Amazon found for me after searching for YEARS, isn't the right story. It has the right characters, like the lovely Lavinia Beresford and the central Margaret Thursday, but I fear it has been abridged. With an axe. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to cry.

When I was in sixth grade, this was one of my favorite books in the whole world. If you love Noel Streatfeild's other books, you will probably love this one too. As a down-to-earth look at a little girl and her rather unusual life on the canals, this book is marvelous. Girls will find the book amusing and will be able to easily relate to the struggles, while older readers will be able to look back to their childhood, and even be able to better understand what their children might be thinking. A wonderful read for any girl, boy, parent or grandparent!