Kids came to WV

gallery showing

From page 19

really the best place to lane after all.

Morgan has invented an Imaginative story line within which she has dertly inter: woven NuUMeCrous facts,

the result is a delighttul, gentle introduction to the solar system, and her large and bright, cheertul illustra. tions make Louis and the Nivht Sky that much more en- ticing for youngsters.

More importantly, itin- troduces Children in a positive way to reading in general and science in particular,

Because Morgan believes it's important tor kids to meet authors, she quite often reads from her work in the classroom.

“Children,"* she says,

“don't have a concept of

what it Means to write a book. They often think authors are either dead or live in

England.”

So, too, is it essential, she believes, for youngsters to become familiar with art from a young age. Last month il- lustrations from her books were displayed at-the Ferry Building Gallery, and to Morgan’s delight, a lot of kids showed up.

“It's a way of getting children into galleries and making them feel comfortable with art so they don’t feel in- timidated to ask questions, ”’ she says of her exhibit.

Morgan’s ultimate goal is to some day open her own children’s art gallery. For now, however, she’s sticking to writing children’s hooks. She has already begun work on her fifth book, Once in a Blue Moon.

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Tiresome tales

ear Mike,

Most of your

reviews are pretty complimentary. What about the really boring, time-wasting, cliche-riddl- ed or simply dumb books you read? — Wondering in Wickaninnish’’ Dear Woodenng. Funny vou should ask...

This week BOOKS NOW takes atp tron the tederal pose ne ment’s Senate rerony strategy with alook at tive books tit tor stating. But stuttiag hese turkevs is ethical and will actually sate vou money ~ welbover $120 i you were unlucky enough to have bought them all.

And speaking of Chance, lets start off with Anthony Bruno's Bad Luck (Doubleday/Delacorte; 28) pp.: $22.95), the third and hope- tully last Ge starring the inept EBL duo of Cuthbert Gibbons and Mike Tozdi.

This time around. the crime: bustin’ cops are up to their badge-tops in Atlantic City casino traud and real estate scams as they battle a less-than-believable array of thuggish Mafia hoods, a cuckalded local godfather and a nun whose favorite tune is “Nearer my Bank To Thee’’. You can‘t fault the title for accuracy.

Next is The Hundred Percent Squad (Warner: 324 pp.:) by EW. Count. The punning possibilities are endless here but I'll try to resist.

Spanning several decades, The Hundred Percent Squad (pre-intla- tion figures, probably) is the rather drawn-out tale of a vendetta be- tween the head of a New York police team and a gang of dope- dealing psychopaths from Juan Valdez country.

Are the boys (and girls) in blue motivated by their interest in law and order or maintaining a pertect score? Or do they just have a thing against people who dress better than they do? If you like books where the long arm of the law commits unpardonable offences against common sense, you'll fove this one.

Jonathon Kellerman had a string of successes with his series of books featuring yuppie psychologist Alex Delaware but began to Jose touch with reality with Silent Partner, a novel lam-

@0e0¢0800 Xe -uoydwiepes 20; uodnos yuesezg , ©

Dasted by Critics asa seltin- duleent. couch lenauth work that needed a little less Freud and a fot more Ru hard Simmons

Kellerman seems to have mad- erated his wating behavior same what, pumping outa leaner story but one with more plot perouta- trons than a Rorschach test

We bave snipers, neo Nazis, Holocaust viqtios, aght-wings go. ATament extremists, sexy school tiers, terronzed students and an enplosece grab ba ob ex 0s members of Students tora Denia: crate Sou ty. Add te the com: merctal potage an annoying Kedlerman dress retsh idese nbing them. not weanng them and vou have un extremedy disturbing pro- te at aweiter desperate enaqugh to try anything

The New York Times praned Marcel Montecino’s The Crosskiller but the author's tollow-up, Big Time (Viking: 403 pp.: $23.95) may be Cause tor some embarrassed reflection.

Protagonist and aspiring crooner Salvatore D'Amore is such a thoroughly despicable, sleazy. weak-willed wimp that the hapless reader is strongly advised to take Big Time not with a grain of salt but with several hundred grains of Gravol.

D'Amore is a degenerate gam- bler who (you guessed it}, has bet the New Orleans mob’s foot on a sure thing. Now the perennial loser and the nay have a sure thing in common: an aiterlife as no- name pet food.

The reader is torn between two conflicting goals during this yarn. The hope that D’Amore will reform, find true love and live happily ever after and the almost uncontrollable urge to grab a gun and personally save the Mafia the trouble.

The terse, ball-crushing, womanizing loner is a staple of the hardboiled whodunit yet seems

to tortu re

MIKE & STEELE p<.

book review

alprost ludicroushy anachronistie in this modern age. Sull, Andrew Vachss has taed his durindest ta nod a current mche tor hes tacituen nero tot Flood, Strena, Blue Belle and now Blossom: Burke. the prowler ot America’s sinestained underbelly and champion of miss. ING PrSOns,

To be trathial, | dishhed Blossom (Random tlouse: 235 pp.: $23.50) the least of thrs dreary tive, Vachssos adept at describing seamy locales and the two-legged sharks who prev on the untortu- nate. The problem is that his main character, Burke-of-the- wounded- psyche, is 100 easily seen as a parody of the hard-bit- ten, two-tisted. guA-totin’ gun: shoes of 1950s pulp fiction.

Too harsh, you say? Listen, you know you have a characterization flaw when the only person you can imagine playing the Jead role in the screen version is Sylvester Stallone of Rambo tame.

In closing I'd just like to thank one and all (and especially “Wo. dering in Wickaninnish’) for a truly cathartic experience. We will, I'm afraid to say, have to do this again some time.

Next Week

Armchair explorers: let your fingers do the walking when BOOKS NOW explores tales of travel adventure at home and abroad. We'll be looking at the magnificent natural wonders of China, the fabled cities of Central Asia and journeys through the wilds ot North America.

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Poet philosophical When The Water Smokes is not only a story of the passage trom one pomt to another but alse an ex. ploration of the relationship be: tween obser atin and thought, Nature without and nature within.

Simpson hes the rare gitt of harnessing words to Convey some- thing of the emotional sweil that surges inthe breast of everyone sensitive to the minut ulous, in- thcate Cuments of nature.

Just another bovine book? Just another boater? Elardly

eee

Neat oweek we complete our odyssesy with four titles of per- sonal exploration: William sullwan’s Listening For Coyote (A Walk Across Oregon's Wilderness), James Ratfan’s Sum- mer North of Sixty (by Paddle and Portage Aczass The Barren Lands), Midnight Wilderness Gourneys tn Alaska’s Arctic Na- tional Wildlife Retuzei by Debbie Miller and Magnetic North (4 Trek trom the Pacitic to the Atlan- tic by Foot, Dogsled and Canoe) by David Halsey and Diana Lan- dau.

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