Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Zindel, Paul (Vol. 26) - Cyrisse Jaffee

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CYRISSE JAFFEE

Death is not an easy subject to deal with in children's books. Attempts to reassure young people too often create saccharine prose; attempts to confront the issue can result in a grim and unappealing tone. Alas, "A Star for the Latecomer"—the story of a young girl trying to come to terms with her mother's approaching death from cancer—tries to find a middle ground but fails. Like Roni Schotter's "A Matter of Time." concerning a similar situation, the story is overwhelmed by its messages. The authors, intent on their topic, have produced prose that is repetitious and tends toward preachiness. And from the opening paragraph, when the narrator says, "I feel somehow you'll understand because you're probably around my age or once upon a time you were my age" (italics mine), they don't really seem to know whom they are speaking to.

Brooke Hillary, 16, has always been close to her mother and has tried, valiantly, to live up to parental...

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1. Introduction
2. Diane Farrell
3. Zena Sutherland
4. The Times Literary Supplement
5. Marilyn R. Singer
6. John Rowe Townsend
7. Diane Gersoni-Edelman
8. The Times Literary Supplement
9. Mary Silva Cosgrave
10. Zena Sutherland
11. BEVERLY A. HALEY and KENNETH L. DONELSON
12. Isabel Quigly
13. Zena Sutherland
14. Isabel Quigly
15. Stanley Hoffman
16. Joyce Milton
17. Maxine Fisher
18. Jack Forman
19. Cyrisse Jaffee
20. Sally Holmes Holtze
21. Peter Fanning
22. David Rees
23. Paxton Davis
24. Judith N. Mitchell
25. Margery Fisher
26. A. Thatcher
27. Copyright

1. Paul Zindel