We Build a Climber

The carpenter daughter of a beloved nursery school teacher who died designs and builds a climber for the playground as a memorial to her mother, with the help of the teacher's pupils

Grade 1-3 This true story tells about the building of a climber at a nursery school. The carpenter who built it was the daughter of a deceased teacher, and she built it in her mother's memory. While the concept is excellent, and the woodcuts with which the book are illustrated delightful, the story is poorly told. Whether the text is intended to imitate actual conversations, or whether it is comprised of actual quotes from individual children, the result is the samestilted, with no style, no character developmentnothing to recommend it as a story. Even as a concept book, describing the way in which a climber is built, it fails, for there is no logical development of the process. The entire manuscript consists of loosely connected dialogue, much like a play without stage directions. The dialogue itself is disjointed. The print resembles slightly enlarged typescript. While the concept and illustrations are both good, they are insufficient to overcome the poor writing. Constance A. Mellon, Department of Library & Information Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.