From: Susan Lempke <71460.1037>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 11:03:25 -0400

Message text written by Walter Mayes
 smacks of sheer orneryness on the part of the editorial staff, as if this book was somehow worthy of a more public drubbing
 than an ordinary "bad" book. I just don't know how it can be justified.<

Booklist is a recommended-only journal, so the only way we can run a negative review is by separating it out in a focus piece, as was also recently done in Hazel Rochman's review of Michael Roberts' The Jungle ABC. It is only done when a book we normally would have simply rejected has gotten positive critical attention elsewhere and is important enough to get wide purchase. If you think Ilene Cooper gleefully got out her hatchet and went after this book, you are mistaken. It was only after it got starred in PW and pointered in Kirkus that she reluctantly felt she had to go on the record with the opinions that we all shared.

Susan Dove Lempke (Booklist reviewer)
Received on Fri 25 Sep 1998 10:03:25 AM CDT