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Searching... Sheridan Public Library | J Lilac (Morrison) | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
To make three youngsters - Patty, Mickey and Liza Sue - abide by their rules, the grown-ups - parents, teachers and other adults - create a world inside a box, a world with toys, games, treats and gifts. But all Patty, Mickey and Liza Sue really want is the freedom to be themselves.
Summary
Here's what happens when parents, teachers, and other adults try to determine the boundaries of personal freedom for a group of youngsters, "who just can't handle their freedom." To make these youngsters abide by their rules, the grown-ups create a world inside a box. A world with toys and games, and treats and gifts, and all kinds of stuff they think children need to be happy and carefree -- everything from a picture of the sky to jelly beans and brand new jeans. All Patty and Mickey and Liza Sue really want is the freedom to be themselves. But even confined inside a box, these clever children find their own ways to be free.
Summary
Illustrated by Giselle Potter. In this first kids' book by Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morisson, adults determine the boundaries of personal freedom for three feisty kids by confining them to a world inside a box filled with toys and treats - all the stuff they think kids need to be happy. But these clever kids want the freedom to be themselves, and even inside a box they find their own ways to be free. This rollicking tale by a master storyteller, is an unforgettable celebration of the irrepressible joy of childhood. Ages 8 and up.
Author Notes
Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931. She received a B.A. in English from Howard University in 1953 and a master's degree in English from Cornell University in 1955 with her thesis on the theme of suicide in modern literature. She taught at several universities including Texas Southern University, Howard University, and Princeton University.
Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Her other works include Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Paradise, Love, A Mercy, Home, and God Help the Child. She has won several awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon in 1977, the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved in 1988, the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the Edward MacDowell Medal for her outstanding contribution to American culture in 2016, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. She also co-wrote children's books with her son, Slade Morrison, including The Big Box, The Book of Mean People, and Peeny Butter Fudge.
Toni Morrison passed away on August 5, 2019 at the age of 88, after a short illness.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931. She received a B.A. in English from Howard University in 1953 and a master's degree in English from Cornell University in 1955 with her thesis on the theme of suicide in modern literature. She taught at several universities including Texas Southern University, Howard University, and Princeton University.
Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Her other works include Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Paradise, Love, A Mercy, Home, and God Help the Child. She has won several awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon in 1977, the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved in 1988, the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the Edward MacDowell Medal for her outstanding contribution to American culture in 2016, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. She also co-wrote children's books with her son, Slade Morrison, including The Big Box, The Book of Mean People, and Peeny Butter Fudge.
Toni Morrison passed away on August 5, 2019 at the age of 88, after a short illness.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (13)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) The Morrisons' long poem about the need to let children be ""free"" relies on a heavy-handed irony (""So they gave little Patty an understanding hug / And put her in a big brown box. / It has carpets and curtains and bean bag chairs / But the door has three big locks"") that is predictably countered by a clich+d voice of childhood wisdom (""I know you are smart and I know that you think / You are doing what is best for me. / But if freedom is handled just your way / Then it's not my freedom or free."") This scenario is repeated for a number of children (and stanzas), and the lack of either thematic or narrative development makes the book tedious. Potter's pictures are big and nice, but they just don't have a lot of work to do beyond showing glum-eyed children in locked rooms (oddly, the locks are on the inside, subverting the entire thrust of the text), or happy-faced children gamboling in nature. Kids faced with reading this book might be well advised to take its advice and go out and play instead. r.s. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Morrison and her son have created a rhymed parable'clearly addressing adults'about 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+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4. "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
School Library Journal Review
Gr 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
(Primary) The Morrisons' long poem about the need to let children be ""free"" relies on a heavy-handed irony (""So they gave little Patty an understanding hug / And put her in a big brown box. / It has carpets and curtains and bean bag chairs / But the door has three big locks"") that is predictably countered by a clich+d voice of childhood wisdom (""I know you are smart and I know that you think / You are doing what is best for me. / But if freedom is handled just your way / Then it's not my freedom or free."") This scenario is repeated for a number of children (and stanzas), and the lack of either thematic or narrative development makes the book tedious. Potter's pictures are big and nice, but they just don't have a lot of work to do beyond showing glum-eyed children in locked rooms (oddly, the locks are on the inside, subverting the entire thrust of the text), or happy-faced children gamboling in nature. Kids faced with reading this book might be well advised to take its advice and go out and play instead. r.s. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Morrison and her son have created a rhymed parable'clearly addressing adults'about 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+)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) The Morrisons' long poem about the need to let children be ""free"" relies on a heavy-handed irony (""So they gave little Patty an understanding hug / And put her in a big brown box. / It has carpets and curtains and bean bag chairs / But the door has three big locks"") that is predictably countered by a clich+d voice of childhood wisdom (""I know you are smart and I know that you think / You are doing what is best for me. / But if freedom is handled just your way / Then it's not my freedom or free."") This scenario is repeated for a number of children (and stanzas), and the lack of either thematic or narrative development makes the book tedious. Potter's pictures are big and nice, but they just don't have a lot of work to do beyond showing glum-eyed children in locked rooms (oddly, the locks are on the inside, subverting the entire thrust of the text), or happy-faced children gamboling in nature. Kids faced with reading this book might be well advised to take its advice and go out and play instead. r.s. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Morrison and her son have created a rhymed parable'clearly addressing adults'about 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+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4. "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