The Days of Summer
Bunting (Smoky Night) tackles an aspect of divorce not usually discussed in children's books with this tale of two sisters whose grandparents decide to split up. Thunderstruck, five-year-old Jo-Jo announces, "I'm never going to eat again, until Grandma and Grandpa get undivorced"; later, she offers to pay her grandmother not to go through with it. Nora, the fourth-grade narrator, worries about the kind of changes her grandparents' decision will bring ("After my friend Fiona's parents got divorced, she never saw her dad again. I couldn't bear it if we never saw Grandpa"). With a great deal of reassurance, love and support from their family, the girls gradually adjust to the idea. Bunting sets her story during that bittersweet transitional time of year right before school starts, an effective device that creates an additional emotional layer (Nora, for instance, feels "doleful" not only about her grandparents, but also about the last ice cream of the summer, the last visit to the duck pond, etc.). Even with the sensitivity of the prose, however, the story has the engineered feeling of a "problem" book and is too wordy for the format. Low's (Chinatown) Photoshop-generated illustrations resemble an artful blend of watercolors and acrylics, and are as carefully and effectively lit as a stage setting. Ages 5-8.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.