The Horn Book Guide

INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Farjeon, Eleanor

The Little Bookroom

315 pp. | NYRB | December, 2003 | Trade ISBN 1-59017-048-2 $$18.95
Reissue (1955, Oxford)

(2) 4-6 New York Review Children's Collection series. Illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. The stories in this immensely satisfying reprint defy categorization, mixing fact and fantasy, sense and nonsense. There's nothing cloying or sentimental about them, shot through as they are with wisdom and longing, taking unexpected plot twists just when you think you know where the story is headed. Ardizzone's illustrations elaborate on Farjeon's stories without overwhelming them.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: August, 1956