[In the following review of Children and Others, the critic lauds Cozzens's ability to present the complexities of growing up.]

[On] the evidence provided by the seventeen [stories] in Children and Others, Mr. Cozzens is probably at his happiest when working on a large canvas. "Eyes to See," the last story in the collection, is much the longest—more of a novella, really than a short story—and much the best. A fifteen-year-old boy is called home from school by his mother's sudden death, and, as the families gather for the funeral, Mr. Cozzens sets out for us most subtly young Maitland's growing awareness of all the complexities, cross-currents, and latent violence of adulthood. Childhood and adolescence are a recurring theme in many of the pieces, and all are beautifully shaped and full of meat. Two quite different ones are about war. In "Men Running" young Holcombe, a volunteer in the American Civil War, is suddenly faced with harsh and heavy responsibilities. Mr. Cozzens skilfully re-creates the authentic nightmare quality of war—that feeling of stepping on to a stage in order to take part in a play that has never been rehearsed.