Little Lulu Volume 8: Late For School
The eighth volume in Dark Horse's completeLittle Lulumay be more noticeably dated than its predecessors. Besides the conspicuous absence of TV, there are such anachronisms of 50 and more years' standing as handcart peddlers, soda jerks, men wearing hats, and hoboes. Heck, Lulu's pesky neighbor Alvin's portable phonograph is a remnant of "olden days" if you're under 30, and those who can appreciate the humor of Lulu successfully distracting her parents by yelling, "Look at the flying saucers!," are, if not all "seniors," very well versed in the crazes of the fifties, indeed. And since when have children uniformly been cowed by their teachers, as Lulu, Tubby, and company are at the end of the first story here? And where in the U.S.A. today could little girls lead and later pursue a live turkey all over town, as Lulu and her punk-precursor pal Annie (oh, that spiky hair!) do in "Lucky Lulu"? But if the details are historical, the humor, even if it is innocent as well as smart, is timeless.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved