Junior Kroll - Softcover

Both Betty Paraskevas and her son, Michael, live in Southampton, New York.

Grade 2-4-- Whether freeing lobsters intended for his mother's dinner party, decorating his grandfather's birthday cake with chocolate spiders, or making friends with a reclusive old lady, Junior Kroll's sometimes naughty behavior is always tempered by good intentions. Paraskevas presents 15 poems revolving around the mischievous youngster, who first appeared in a comic strip in a Long Island (NY) weekly. The poems have an infectious rhythm and beg to be read aloud. The privileged world of Garden Club ladies, servants, and huge estates may be alien to the majority of children, yet much like "Richie Rich" comics of yesteryear, there's a vicarious pleasure in reading about wealth. Dominated by line drawings made from blurred prismacolor pencil, the illustrations, which owe a great deal to the images of Larry Rivers, are colored with thinned gouache washes in neutral shades for the background and semi-opaque bold colors for the dominant figures. Although they have a slightly detached, almost nostalgic air, the gently humorous poetry featuring an appealing child should guarantee a fairly wide audience. --Denise Anton Wright, Illinois State University, Normal
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.