Uncle James - Hardcover

Harshman and Dooling apply a thick coating of sentimentality to a host of painful issues--mourning, poverty and alcoholism among them. The narrator, a boy, describes how hard times have visited his family since his father died. He's quit school to help Mom, and his sisters may have to follow suit--unless Uncle James, their mother's brother, keeps his promises to pitch in and send money. Uncle James writes rousing letters of his exploits out west, but when he arrives, months later, he is penniless and alcoholic, more in need of help than able to give it. Mom gently chastises her children for their inevitable anger at Uncle James, then sets about drying him out ("How Mom did it, I don't know, but she did. There have been a lot of long talks at night, about our grandparents and lots of things I don't really understand"). Dooling's faux-Rockwell paintings offer souped-up portrayals of each character--Mom anguishing over her brother, the children enraptured by Uncle James's letters; Uncle James bowing his head in shame. Overambitious and overdone. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A bleak realistic story about a family eking out a meager living after Father dies. Jimmy, the narrator, has to drop out of school to help on the farm; but during the first hungry winter, mother and children are buoyed by the hope offered in Uncle James's letters--he's coming to help; he's making money logging, and he'll send some soon. The letters, full of Uncle James's exploits and promises, continue through a hard summer before James himself turns up, drunk and penniless. Jimmy's angry, but Mom is philosophical (``His words lied, but his heart didn't. He wanted the best for us...''). She also, in a simplistic conclusion, reforms her brother with long night talks, argument, and love. Still, a perceptive, well-told story of hard times early in the century, illustrated with sober insight in Dooling's carefully crafted paintings, in somber grays and browns. (Picture book. 6-10) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.