| Author: | James Hemming and |
|---|
Josephine Balls. Longman's. 7s. 6d.
This book is rightly described by the publishers as " A Challenge to Parents and Other Adults "? In their attempt to paint a picture of life from the child's point of view, the authors show somewhat unusual imagination. In fact many of the stories are almost too painfully real and only too familiar. The child, for instance, who, finding himself separated from his mother in the bus, is seized with panic and starts pushing and shoving everyone in his attempt to get out ; the two-and-a-half year old who wants to climb on his mother's knee and is told " not to come too near in case he knocked the baby's head " ; the adolescent whose attempts to appear grown up are constantly being misunderstood and laughed at, and so on.
Although there is much useful advice in this book, it is primarily descriptive and therefore very readable. It should be a help to those who want to understand but do not always stop to think. C.H.S.