Fun, No Fun

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Those who cheered Stevenson's When I Was Nine and Don't You Know There's a War On? will find the author/artist's latest return trip to his childhood equal cause for celebration. Here Stevenson--helped by his characteristically winsome watercolors--playfully muses on what was ``fun'' and what was ``no fun'' when he was a boy, juxtaposing the two with engagingly dry humor. The ``fun'' list includes cowboy boots, baseball hat and cookies with raisins; the ``no fun'' equivalents are galoshes, cap with flaps and cookies with no raisins. Some of the author's reminiscences conjure up a vanished past (``The five-and-ten had small wires along the ceiling. Small boxes went rattling around the store to where people made change''), but many of his experiences could easily take place today (``Fun was being a Cub Scout. No fun was going to a Cub Scout meeting if you had to walk past tough kids to get there''). Adults as well as kids will grin knowingly at the affable Stevenson's observations. Definitely ``fun'' for all. Ages 5-up. (Apr.)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-As he did in When I Was Nine (Greenwillow, 1986), Stevenson discusses some of the activities and events of his youth. Readers, young and old alike, will appreciate comparing and contrasting their own experiences. Primitive childlike watercolors add to the realism of the story. They reflect a time when life was simpler (i.e., no Nintendo), but youngsters will readily identify with the universal feelings, even if they don't share the author's preferences of what is fun and what is not. A fine read-aloud choice or for one-on-one intergenerational sharing.-Marcia S. Rettig, South Buffalo Elementary School, Freeport, PA

Hazel Rochman

Fun is watching a thunderstorm coming; no fun is when the storm arrives and the lightning crashes. Fun is preparing and planning to put on a play; no fun is the play itself. Fun is an amusement park; no fun is being caught on a ride when it's too late to get off. Besides the simple contrasts, Stevenson gets across the surprising way the happiest moments can suddenly turn into their opposites. Fun and no fun are connected. Fun was his birthday; no fun was his brother's birthday (with all those beautifully wrapped packages). Everything's understated, yet there's a clarity here about feelings that's honest and intimate and never condescending. As in Stevenson's "Don't You Know There's a War On?" (1992) and his other books about his childhood, the small blurry, watercolor figures and simple words leave lots of space. It's as if the images and experiences he remembers are bits and pieces of an elusive whole. There are some specific old-fashioned things kids will want to ask grandparents about (like the small cash boxes that went rattling around the store along ceiling wires to where people made change); but most things are either fun or no fun today as they always were.