From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6 When Anna's mother goes into the hospital, Anna must stay with the Pringle family, a dreaded prospect since the Pringle twins' skills in underhandedness are so refined that they can victimize their peers as they choose and still appear, to parents, well-mannered and irreproachable. Although Anna's age is never stated, the occasional pen-and-ink illustrations suggest that she is about ten. Tomalin shows how Anna, diffident and unsure of herself, reacts to her position of extreme vulnerability. Anna's character development is pivotal in determining the story's outcome. Resentment building, self-doubts growing, she and her cat discover a private sanctuary. The "wilderness" sequence is rich in atmospheric details, its dreaminess offering a distinct mood change effective in creating Anna's sudden sense of newness and self-sufficiency. What does seem a bit too hurried is the conclusion, a sudden rush of all-is-well-in-the-world. Within seconds of overhearing new acquaintances say they quite like her, Anna hears the voices of her mother, home from the hospital, and her father, home after working the year in Scotland, calling her out of the garden. It is a marvelous, well-deserved finish, but in a book in which the particulars are so well-delineated and the timing so good, this seems a moment too good to be true. Little Nasty is quick and entertaining and especially satisfying for the twists and turns of human nature that it considers. Susan Powers, Berkeleyu Carroll St. School, Brooklyn
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
