Roxaboxen

by Alice McLerran and Barbra Cooney

Summary

Marian called it Roxaboxen. (She always knew the name of everything.) There across the road, it looked like any rocky hill -- nothing but sand and rocks, some old wooden boxes, cactus and greasewood and thorny ocotillo -- but it was a special place: a sparkling world of jeweled homes, streets edged with the whitest stones, and two ice cream shops. Come with us there, where all you need to gallop fast and free is a long stick and a soaring imagination.

Review

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1991)
The author recalls a rocky Arizona hilltop where her mother and the neighborhood friends of her childhood fashioned a town from old crates, rocks, and an endless supply of imagination. Streets and houses were added, offices held ("Marian was mayor of course; that was just the way she was. Nobody minded"), businesses thrived, and found objects were put to artful use. There were sticks as swift horses to ride, a jail with cactus on the floor, wars (the fort was always safe), a cemetery (just one dead lizard, and flowers)--a microcosmic world of happy improvisation. Turning her palette to dusty blues and the other rich hues of the desert, Cooney captures the setting and the joy with her usual lucid design, gentle wit, and grasp of what is beguiling and significant. Many books memorialize imaginative play in the hope of inspiring a new generation, but rarely with so much creative and evocative power. 1991, Lothrop Lee & Shepard, $14.95; PLB $14.88. Starred Review. © 1991 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
(PUBLISHER: Lothrop Lee & Shepard (New York:), PUBLISHED: 1991.)

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Citations: Summary from Amazon, Review from CLCD, Lesson Plan from Teachingbooks.net

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