Alice's Special Room - Hardcover

James Cross Giblin is the author of more than 20 critically acclaimed books for young people. His most recent book for Clarion, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, received the Robert F. Sibert Award for Informational Books. Mr. Giblin lives in New York City.

PreSchool-Grade 3-- So eager is Gackenbach to get on with his tale that he begins it on the endpapers; and what an entertaining adventure it is, with a lucid explanation of the difficult concept of memory, to boot! Alice says, "In my special room I can only see people I've met before. I can only go places I've already been. And I can only do things I've already done." The challenge to readers, and to Alice's mother, is to figure out this riddle. The mother wanders from room to room without understanding what her daughter means, but when she arrives in the attic, she determines, "That special room is your memory!" Gackenbach chooses a metaphor that children will understand and successfully makes it concrete. He shows, imaginatively, just how Alice can play on the beach in January and go sledding in hot July. These pictures are contrasted with the "real" rooms that Alice's mother searches, and help readers distinguish between what they see in their minds and what they see with their eyes. Charming--a first-rate book by a popular artist. --Anna Biagioni Hart, Sherwood Regional Library, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.