THE MISSING PIECE
MEETS THE BIG O
(New York Times Book
Review, October 11, 1981)
By Joyce
Milton
Let's get one thing clear at the outset. The title of Shel Silverstein's new cartoon
fable is definitely the best part. Inside this 100-page hardcover
production, we meet a wedge-shaped "missing piece" that's rejected by a series of
cellulite-plagued circles in search for you guessed it. When the Big O finally does
come along, there's an incompatibility problem and the missing piece is forced to
change its shape.
But enough. The ending is a surprise and not the one you might be anticipating
either. Shel Silverstein is a witty man and if he's not so much an author of
children's books as a publishing phenomenon, who's to complain? All a reviewer can do
in this situation is to offer reassurance to nervous parents. Should this book happen
to find its way from the local card shop to your house (chances are fair to good that
it will), and should your children happen to see it, don't worry. It won't mean a thing
to them.
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