New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-09-19
yOHN DRINKWATERl
u registers against CENSOR
ship, but hesitates to partici-
pate IN an American con-
trOUersu
A Key to a Gate
Mary Heaton Worse Opens
Door to Land of Children

~
books of our grandfathers and
that Of the choice, but too limited,
writings that, like Canton's Invisible
/ Playmate, picture q child world Of al
most ethereal beauty, there lies king
dom In literature seldom trod by authors,
A few novelists have essayed to wander
over this region, only to get lost In
their own tangles of sophisticated YER
btage or through their inability to
chart out true paths. For the realm
OF the young child Is 80 misty In our
memories that We, laden with the pack
OF our years, seldom, very seldom,
journey back to the gate and drop that
pack at the portal. Yet, if we would
interpret the doings, the sayings, the
pure psychology Of our children for
whom the teens are still ahead, we must
be children ourselves.
Mary Heaton worse is wholly. SYM
pathetically, inside the gates, and she
comes to us at the latch and gives us
what we desire, what we need, the un-
deniable Interpretation of the land of
young children, republic so quaint in
its efforts to initiate maturity. deli
ciously delightful in its sheer spon
taneity of humor. Her The Prestons
was godsend, book that made US
fathers and mothers forget our sell
emnities and assume at least a fic
tlonal place as partners with our boys
and girls. And now, in Growing Up
(Boni Liveright), she has gone a
Jaunt further, with US in tow, into the
heart Of the mystical kingdom that lies
about US in our own homes, yet 50
vaguely outlined to our mental vision
that we don't seem to realize it, This
DOCK IS much needed one 1t should
be in every honestly American home.
LOT 1t is a sort of wade mecum for
parents. And now for glance into it.
The family Of the Marccys, Tom and
Alice for parents, and Robert, Sara
and Jamie for children, is typical. One
can go down any respectable street in
the United States and point out coun-
terparts. The three children are of the
group universal, but each is q distinct
little unit with passionately conceived
and defended whims and aspirations.
Robert, "elusve and vanishing" is the
man In microcosm. Sara, "howlinp
Sara is the "gregarious," doll loving
and fostering little girl. And Jamie.
delightful youngster, performs his
solemn pamaoo ~
visible guests. These children have
their unseen and adjacent country
wherein dwclls "Uncle Zotsby" and his
dog, the mystical canine, whose tails
manic name" "Pa Skelegg" is divulped
IN a whisper at the close Of the book.
after many days Of vigorous question
ing by Sara. But the essence Of Grow
ing Up, its comfortable guide for US,
is to be found, not in the refreshingly
humorous exploits and visionings of
the children, but In the study of the
three by their splendid mother, Alice.
She learns, through the days and the
weeks and the months, that the kew to
their hearts is sympathy, that what 50
often may appear to be INSTRUMENTATION
and wanton freakishness is merely
the natural, rational, to be expected
when understood, expressions of a lit
tie mind that sees and interprets q
tiny world in a small way.
Alice contrves to be at one with
Robert, Sara and Jamie. She gets into
holy place that practical father Tom
can never enter. Her story, so purely
a record of what has happened and will
happen again and again, in the cases
OF mothers who can be as children
with their little ones. is a marvel of
fidelity to the isms and the actua,jties
Of childhood. Don't lay Growing Up
aside with a smile Of parental supe-
riority. Read 1t, laugh with it, forget
your years. and take your little Sara
or Jamie on your lap or your knee with
a sense of new and loving acouain
lance.