The Big Box

Because they do not abide by the rules written by the adults around them, three children are judged unable to handle their freedom and forced to live in a box with three locks on the door

Grade 3-6-Morrison sets to rhyme a story her son created when he was nine-years-old. When three children make their parents, neighbors, or teachers nervous-Patty talks in the library, Mickey plays handball where he shouldn't, and Liza Sue lets the chickens on her farm keep their eggs-the adults decide that the youngsters can't handle their freedom and so choose to have them confined. A literal reading of the text says that they put them in a big box, but some will infer that they were institutionalized. Their parents visit on Wednesday nights and provide plenty of material gifts, but "the door only opens one way." Potter's moody, quirky, somber-colored illustrations, similar to those she created for Candace Fleming's Gabriella's Song (Atheneum, 1997), interpret the story quite literally, picturing nearly every object mentioned in the text, leaving little to readers' imaginations. The box varies between a furnished room with the three locks on the door referred to in the text, to the cardboard box on the cover, from which, at the end of the story, the three break free to recapture their personal freedom. This is a book that will have a hard time finding an audience: it looks like a picture book for younger children, yet the theme and images require some sophistication and a desire to explore life's boundaries. What children of any age will make of parents who decided to lock up their own children for relatively minor infractions remains to be seen.
Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Nobel laureate Morrison's debut book for children unfortunately shows little of the childlike perspective that so masterfully informs The Bluest Eye. This enigmatic tale, written in verse, is inspired by a story made up by Morrison's then nine-year-old son. The opening scene depicts two girls and a boy who live in a "big brown box" with a door that has "three big locks." The trio have been sent there by adults who think they "can't handle their freedom." Suburban Patty has "too much fun in school all day" ("When we pledged to the flag, she'd spoil it"); urban Mickey writes his name on mailbox lids and plays handball next to a sign that forbids the game; and country girl Liza Sue lets the chickens keep their eggs and feeds honey to the bees. Each child, when told that he or she has overstepped the bounds, counters with the identical unchildlike response: "I know you are smart and I know that you think/ You're doing what is best for me./ But if freedom is handled just your way/ Then it's not my freedom or free." The parents, never visible visiting the box, nonetheless leave behind plenty of parting gifts (e.g., "Blimpies and Frisbees... and Matchbox cars that go"). In the final scene, the children, inexplicably, easily clamber over the sides of the big brown box to freedom. Potter's (Gabriella's Song) handsome illustrations in a postmodern folk-art style possess an austere simplicity, effectively marking the contrast to the adults' commercial bribes littering the floor. But ultimately the tale is mundane; the social commentary on childhood, freedom and the tendency of parents to give children things instead of time and attention seems aimed more at adult readers than children. Ages 8-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PLB 0-7868-2364-X Morrison and her son have created a rhymed parableclearly addressing adultsabout three children who are firmly, lovingly locked into a room-sized box because they ``can't handle their freedom.'' Patty, Mickey, and Liza Sue don't follow all the rules, e.g., at school, Patty ``ran through the halls and wouldn't play with dolls/And when we pledged to the flag she'd spoil it.'' Their teachers, parents, and neighbors nervously put them away, not listening to their repeated protestation: `` `I know that you think/You're doing what is best for me./But if freedom is handled just your way/Then it's not my freedom or free.' '' Potter places sad children and grave adults into fresh compositions, done in restrained colors, scattered with the small animals and items mentioned in the text. The Morrisons end with a challenge``Who says they can't handle their freedom?''that is weakened by an illustration that, in showing the children effortlessly pushing down the box's walls, misses the point. Nonetheless, it's a valid message, strongly made, and a promising children's book debut for the authors. (Picture book. 8+) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"Shades of the prison house begin to close upon the growing boy." Wordsworth's famous line could be the theme of Morrison's first picture book, coauthored by her son, who "devised" the story when he was nine. It's about three contemporary kids imprisoned because their imagination and spontaneity threaten the conformist adult world. Patty's a rebel in the classroom; she makes the heavy-browed, therapeutic grown-ups nervous. Mickey upsets his city neighborhood. Liza frees the animals on the farm. So, for their own good, the three children must be locked away in a big, brown box. The box is comfortable, even pretty, filled with cool consumer stuff, but there are three locks on the door, which opens only one way. Allthough the sing-song, rhyming narrative suffers from a didactic refrain about the joyful natural world outside, where animals scream, rabbits hop, and "beavers chew trees when they need 'em," Potter's large-size double-spread illustrations in naive style effectively contrast the stiff, luxurious details of the human prison with the openness and color of the primitive wilderness to which the triumphant rebellious trio escape and run with the animals in the light. Disobedience, nonconformity, and imaginative play are at the heart of many great children's books, from Maurice Sendak's 1963 classic, Where the Wild Things Are, to Rosemary Wells' subversive Timothy Goes to School (1981); in contrast, Morrison's story is simplistic and sentimental. Older kids may want to talk about the sinister prison images of dystopia, but the message about individual freedom is too heavily spelled out, three times in fact. The story will appeal most to adults who cherish images of childhood innocence in a fallen world. Hazel Rochman