Through the Children's Gate

by Adam Gopnik

For ages Parents

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Mr. Gopnik's collection of essays is a marvelous take on the modern, urban family-of-four setting. Something in the voice of the storyteller, and certainly in the up-to-the-moment-ness of it, makes this group of stories especially edgy -- touching and zing-ing, it cuts close to our deepest hopes and our worst neuroses, all at once. While some complaints about lack of focus in certain pieces may be fairly leveled, the essays about his daughter's maddeningly busy imaginary friend, Charlie Ravioli, and the disastrous three bowl circus around the death of the family goldfish, not to mention the epic tale of the little league football team the Giant Metrozoids, are alone worth the price of even the hardback book. The stories are funny and warm and deeply true. And we don't just say that because we can really relate to his story about misusing the acronyms when we are (someday) instant messaging our kids. At best, we can only hope to be -- like Mr. Gopnik -- the dopey parent who tries to send love, even if we've got the language all wrong.

$25.00
$20.00

Review provided by The Savvy Source.