Chil­dren’s

A Nick­el, a Trol­ley, a Trea­sure House

Sharon Reiss Bak­er; Beth Peck, illus.
  • Review
By – December 19, 2011
A child of an immi­grant fam­i­ly in the ear­ly days of the cen­tu­ry who spends his time draw­ing is under-appre­ci­at­ed in this delight­ful pic­ture book. Although his par­ents com­plain that there’s not much use for it” Lionel per­sists in sketch­ing and draw­ing on every pos­si­ble scrap of paper and in every free moment he has. His ally is his old­est sis­ter, Rose, who works in their mother’s dress shop. It is she who pro­vides him with card­board and string from the shop and encour­ages his efforts. The oth­er per­son who encour­ages his art is his teacher, Miss Mor­ris­sey, who has plans for the two of them — plans which involved a trip on a trol­ley. After wor­ry­ing about the trol­ley fare, Lionel finds him­self at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art! What a feast for a child such as he, and for the read­er as well, for Peck’s illus­tra­tions are also art, paint­ed loose­ly in won­der­ful mut­ed col­ors evoca­tive of the peri­od. The book is mar­velous­ly designed as well. Enjoy. For ages 6 – 8.
Mar­cia W. Pos­ner, Ph.D., of the Holo­caust Memo­r­i­al and Tol­er­ance Cen­ter of Nas­sau Coun­ty, is the library and pro­gram direc­tor. An author and play­wright her­self, she loves review­ing for JBW and read­ing all the oth­er reviews and arti­cles in this mar­velous periodical.

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