Spectacles

A girl finds that she is able to see into the past when she wears her great grandmother's glasses

Grade 4-6 Alison feels a letdown when her birthday party is over. Great Grandmother, who is visiting, is sick in bed. Alison's mother is spending a lot of time in the sick room, and Alison feels lonely after all of her guests leave. That night she puts on Great Grandmother's glasses, which become a window to the past, and she sees and hears Great Grandmother as a young woman at the moment Great Grandfather proposed marriage. The next morning Alison talks with Great Grandmother about that moment long ago, and the old woman confirms that things happened the way Alison saw them. Alison learns that "it's fun to think about the past sometimes." Pels' muted color pencil illustrations are as low key as the text. Spectacles is a softly focused story lovingly told in lyrical prose. It is also the kind of gentle whimsy that appeals to adults far more than to children. Drew Stevenson, Tompkins County Public Library, Ithaca, N.Y.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The second in the Goblin Tale series is the distinguished author's first book for children. At devising a "contemporary story of the unexplained," Beattie is not entirely successful, even discounting the dangling phrase ("Looking down, the stairs seemed . . .") copied on the book jacket from the text. The plot is based on Alison's experiences on her birthday. The little girl's presents are grand and so is the party, although her great-grandmother falls ill and has to stay in bed. Alison wears the ailing lady's eyeglasses that night and witnesses events in the distant past, when her great-grandmother was young and courted by the man she accepted. There is a flatness in the telling, except for the appealing poems that lighten the text at intervals. The illustrations by Pels are also disappointing. Although technically impressive, they are dim; the colors are drab as though poorly reproduced.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.