[Berries Goodman is a] completely contemporary tale, as immediate and recognizable as the PTA and advice-to-parents columns. Its central theme—anti-Semitic prejudice in "restricted" communities and how it affects children brought up in ignorance that such things exist—is both important and interesting. Its incidents … are the stuff of everyday middle-class life. Its hero, Berries, is as appealing a 9-year-old as you could find. And yet, after the award-winning It's Like This, Cat, Mrs. Neville's previous book, this is a disappointment. Probably the trouble is that the material is all too familiar, and there is not enough drama in the story or development in the characters. (p. 16)