The Wonderful O

"The Wonderful O," published in 1957, is a tale for children, and a reminder for adults, of the joys of love, liberty, language and, not least, humor. It has pirates and treasure and magic and a message that especially in complacent times must not be forgotten.--"The Wall Street Journal." Illustrations.

ISBN 1590173090   Pages 80 ISBN13 9781590173091 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher The New York Review of Books, Inc   Weight (grammes) 218 Imprint The New York Review Children's Collection   Published in New York Format Hardback   Height (mm) 208 Publication date 07 May 2009   Width (mm) 134 Illustrator Marc Simont   Spine width (mm) 13 Library of Congress 2008024232   Academic level Children (6-12) DEWEY 813.52   Interest age From 7 To 10 DEWEY edition DC22   Alternative ISBN 9780787101930

""The Wonderful O," published in 1957, is a tale for children, and a reminder for adults, of the joys of love, liberty, language and, not least, humor. It has pirates and treasure and magic and a message that especially in complacent times must not be forgotten..."The Wonderful O" is a book worth finding, wherever you can, and reading, as one of its characters concludes, 'lest we forget.'" -"The Wall Street Journal" "Among James Thurber's 30 books were several for children. Two reader favorites of the Fifties, "The Thirteen Clocks" and "The Wonderful O," have returned, illustrations by Marc Simont intact. These are funny, richly textured stories that pile on the fantasy and will make middle readers laugh a lot." -"The Record" (NJ) ""The Wonderful O" and The 13 Clocks...witty, funny, imaginative tales which will earn Thurber a new generation of admirers." -"The Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate" "No one else could think up a fairy story, tale, legend, exercise or what have you, based upon 'O' alone. Certainly no one else could bring it off if he had. Mr. Thurber, however, can, did, and does. No more worthy 'O' words could go before "The Wonderful O" than another O Wonderful." -Lewis Nichols, "The New York Times" "A satirical adventure story about two scoundrels, one of whom has a violent dislike of the letter 'O, ' and a search for buried treasure." -Sam Zolotow, "The New York Times" "A satire on dictatorship and a celebration of the spirit of freedom essential to the lively pursuit of happiness...The form of the story is wonderfully adroit." -Charles Poole, "The New York Times" "A prodigious performance. As a medium in the great seance of letters he is incomparable;he has only to utter an incantatory moan, and words levitate, phrases rap out unexpected messages, and whole sentences turn into ectoplasm." -"The New Yorker" "The loveliest and liveliest of parables. The end is a real surprise." -"Harper's Magazine" "Excellent Thurber. Besides being a highly original fairy tale and a rollicking linguistic gambol, "The Wonderful O" is a still further fable for our time-perhaps the best and most serious that Thurber has written." -"New York Herald Tribune Book Review" "A dazzling feat of verbal virtuosity, with frequent lapses into interior rhyme." -"Library Journal" "While ostensibly for children who will love its wit, its rhythms, and its free-flowing imagination, it will speak irresistibly to older minds and funnybones and, one might add, heart." -"Boston Herald" "Perhaps the worthiest contemporary fabulist in English. His effects are almost musical. He gets us to laugh and gulp down another lesson in the value of human liberty at one end and the same time." -"San Francisco Examiner" "Pure and unadulterated Thurber, and that means Thurber at his zaniest. Not since Lewis Carroll has such foolishness masked such wisdom; and besides, it's a gale of fun from start to finish." -"St. Louis Globe Democrat" "Like all good fables, it is told in simple language and in a manner children can delight in." -"Chicago Tribune" "Witty...extremely cleverEIt has a moral." -"The Christian Science Monitor" "O, wonderful! James Thurber's grown-up kids' books, "The Wonderful O" and "The 13 Cloc"ks, long out of print, are back -- rich with ogres and oligarchs, riddles and wit. What distinguishes them is not just quixotic imagination butThurber's inimitable delight in language. The stories beg to be read aloud...Thurber captivates the ear and captures the heart." --"Newsweek" "A disadvantaged world without O is amusingly imagined in James Thurber's 1957 children's book, "The Wonderful O," about pirates who land on an island called Ooroo and tyrannically expunge their patron letter." --"Ottawa Citizen"

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