The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread (1965) - Plot & Excerpts
I couldn't quite wrap my head around this book. While it's written in language the 9-year old protagonist would use, it deals with some pretty adult themes. I suppose the point is that children are often have to deal with this type of stuff, and process it in their own childlike way. Somehow I felt like this didn't quite work in the book though, and really serious issues were kind of brushed over in a strangely semi-humorous way. Due to the time period the book was written in, it's fairly racist and sexist, which I also wasn't expecting, and made the 9-year old language patterns seem even more incongruent. The book's strengths are the spot-on cadences of a 9 year-old and its descriptions of 1940s life. I accidentally found this book in a library. It was my first Don Robertson book. What struck me was Don's writing style - while it is very different from most others, his narrative is quite absorbing. Morris Bird III is a very well written character and the story flows around him. Told from Morris Bird's perspective, a 9 year old boy in the 1940s Cleveland, it takes the reader through a very interesting journey and most often reminds one of his / her own childhood days. A good book to read on a lazy afternoon. After you start reading, both lazy and afternoon would be gone :)
What do You think about The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread (1965)?
Thought the voice of Morris Bird III was great. Cool snapshot of WWII era Clevleand.
—millielopez
I love stories narrated from a child's point of view.
—Vanessa
