Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: By the Side of the Road by Jules Feiffer ISBN: 0-7868-0908-6 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The story interests children
Comment: When Richard won't stop goofing off with his brother in the backseat of the car, his parents leave him temporarily at the side of the road. Just to show them, he refuses to come home and builds his own living quarters beneath the ground and grows up, by the side of the road. This first person narrative uses cut-out, single and full-page pencil drawings that give a sense of earnestness to this ridiculous story and to portray Richard's new life and the story gives children a chance to think they might be able to take complete charge of their lives, even though most parents I know would bring their child kicking and screaming home.
Rating: 2
Summary: Mixed Messages
Comment: The book sends mixed messages to children. What starts out as a message about empowerment and choosing one's own destiny, disintegrates into the opposite. The story is about a boy who chooses to be left on the side of the road rather than, depending on how you look at it, behave during a car ride, OR endure verbal abuse from a father with poor parenting skills.
The boy uses peaceful social protest to produce an end to tyranny. Ultimately, his parents are both upset and repentent (bringing the boy food, clothing and shelter). The boy, however, goes too far and becomes fanatical and self absorbed. He becomes enslaved to the idea of defying inequity even when it no longer exists. Instead of choosing a home and the company of friends and family, the boy chooses isolation, dwelling in a cave and takes satisfaction in a collection of articles about serial killers.
At the end of the story the boy grows up and he has a wife, kids, and his parents living with him in the cave. His brother has established his own "more modern" cave in Seattle. What started out as a celebration of independant thinking ends with all the characters thinking alike. The book ends with a single thought, "Thank God" all the cave dwellers say when they return to their home. Thank God for what?
Rating: 2
Summary: No! Please no!
Comment: ...
I have to admit that when I found this book, I was so excited by the idea of the story, I bought two of them. I mean, what could be more entertaining? A parent who actually leaves the kid on the side of the road. I was always wanting to call that bluff on my parents. And in the future, I think I'll be wanting to use that threat plenty of times on my own car load of kids.
But then what began as a great idea fizzled into a nightmare on parenting. As you've read above, the KID decides HE doesn't want to go back home when his parents come back to get him. Then he creates his own life and own world by the side of the road.
Perhaps this really is a reflection of our day and age, and should be revered as such - a time where kids can determine how things go - where kids are the bosses and adults are supposed to listen to them.
And perhaps a seven year old is mature enough to read (or hear) this story and realize that that's all it is - a story - a childhood fantasy. However, for some reason, I don't think a seven year old has quite begun to separate fiction and reality, yet. And for some reason, I'd rather my kids were living in the fantasy world of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" rather than in a world where they can do something they shouldn't be doing and get away with it. That attitude already permeates reality as it is.
I did keep reading the story - hoping that _something_ would happen so the boy learned a lesson. But nothing does. He builds an underground house and has a family and his parents eventually come to live with him. And that's it.
By the way, if you're dying to read this book because of the conflicting reviews - check it out from the library... don't waste your money.
 |
Title: House Across the Street, The by Jules Feiffer ISBN: 0786809108 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: 30 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: The Man in the Ceiling by Jules Feiffer ISBN: 0062059076 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 30 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears by Jules Feiffer ISBN: 0062059262 Publisher: Harpercollins Juvenile Books Pub. Date: 30 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
 |
Title: Meanwhile... by Jules Feiffer ISBN: 0062059335 Publisher: Harpercollins Juvenile Books Pub. Date: 31 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: I Lost My Bear by Jules Feiffer ISBN: 0688151477 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
