The Toy Brother

William Steig's "The Toy Brother" takes us back to medieval England, where brothers Charles and Yorick spend their time in the time-honored way of figuring out ways to annoy each other (some things never change). When one of them gets into their father's magic potions, all heck breaks loose and there are problems a-plenty--compounded by the fact that their parents are away for several days at a family wedding.The brothers come to an understanding on their own--a nice touch--not with the help of their parents or any other characters. But of course, it's all even better once their parents arrive home.One of my very favorite things about William Steig's books--aside from, well, everything--is that he treats kids like smart people. That's different from treating them like grown-ups, which he doesn't do--but he uses uncommon words and phrases with great abandon, figuring that what kids don't pick up from context they can jolly well look up in a dictionary. Bully for him! The result is a book that has zing, and the usual terrific Steig illustrations. So much fun, whether or not the child you're reading to has an annoying brother!

William Steig joined here the delightful tone of his earlier children's books to the inventiveness found in his New Yorker cartoons. Yorick, the older of these two medieval boys, had notions of surpassing his father at alchemy, and hoped someday to turn donkey's dung into gold. Charles on the other hand preferred chasing chickens, poking in anthills and arguing with the family goat. Naturally, when their parents traveled to a distant wedding, Yorick got into some solution. "Yes goosewit," he told his brother, after transmogrificating himself, "I invented a new potion. But I tasted it and za-zing! I was no bigger than a cockroach." Charles found his older brother's new size satisfyingly real as peas and beans and built him a new pint-sized house, but when it started to hail, he realized that Yorick would always be in danger. He could easily drown in a bucket of milk, be eaten by a cat, seriously injured by a field mouse or stepped on by a donkey. Steig mixed unusual words with more unusual ingredients--putting gadzooks and flabbergasted with borage, betony, camphor, sauerkraut and dainty pies. The hysterical result no doubt humored the Bede minikins. It is bound to enchant your own tikes as well, especially if they're prone to fight now and then. Alyssa A. Lappen

How many of us had older siblings that ignored us and thought we were pests? And how many of us had younger siblings that were pests? This is a great story of two brothers in this situation. But in the end find mutual respect for each other. William Steig's fairy tale magic leaves children wanting this story read over and over again.

William Steig works his magic again in this tale of twoalchemist's sons. The older brother, Yorick, has no use for theyounger son, Charles. But when Mom and Dad are gone for a week, Yorick learns how it feels to be the smaller brother, via a forbidden trip to his father's lab.Now Charles is the bigger kid, but in a loveable and believable way, chooses to help his toy brother, for always, if need be. Dad finally manages to undo the magic, but we know the caring between the brothers will go on forever.