To Do

Gr 8 Up—To Do was Stein's second children's book, published posthumously by Yale University in 1957. This new edition, released 65 years after her death, is accompanied by Potter's folk-art-style illustrations. The full-page artwork is charming, but the book will still find limited appeal among children. Suitable for academic or large metropolitan libraries, it is an A-to-Z compilation of birthday stories. The dense text can be challenging to follow: "And so they all went to sleep and it was F. Yes it was it was F. But nobody must forget not yet that F follows E. Francis, Fatty, Fred and Fanny." So it goes for 127 pages. Some of the stories were written with dark humor, like "Q," which features a cannibalistic rabbit. Most will leave readers scratching their heads. Certainly a work by a major American-born author is important, but To Do is best left on the shelves of research libraries.—Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA