cover image The Grown-Up Trap

The Grown-Up Trap

Ib Spang Olson, Ib S. Olsen. Legacy Words, $6.98 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-934738-96-5

Olsen's cautionary tale about too-busy modern life seems to be directed more to parents than to children. Tired of being ignored, Caroline invents a way to ``change the way grown-ups act' ' by caging them in a playhouse ``like parakeets.'' After the parents are trapped and tamed, according to Caroline's dream, each youngster will be able to pick out a parent who will do all the things lonely children wish adults would do with them--take walks, answer questions, provide comfort, read books. Her friends actually build the trap Caroline envisions, and the book ends with the wish that ``Maybe . . . together the grown-ups and children can make the little wooden house into something for them all to share.'' Olsen, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, presents lively, loosely drawn watercolor-and-ink illustrations that brim with vitality, and he portrays the needs and loneliness of neglected children with sensitivity and sympathy. Nevertheless, American readers may shy away from his heavy-handedness. Ages 5-up. (Apr.)