The Best from the |
_Stacks —

Genie with the Light. Blue. Hair, by Ellen Conford 7
-Young-adult fiction published by Bantam. Books o3

Jeannie Warren is practical; she believes there is a rational ex.
. planation. for everything. Until she meets Arthur, that is.- ,

by Nene Fiegeeund

The trouble all starts when-her aunt Jean and uncle Rocky give |

her an antique lamp for her 15th. birthday. ‘It looks a little like
Aladdin’s magic lamp.

. Jeannie can’t imagine what she'll do with: the lamp. She con-
siders trading it for something more practical, but she doesn’ t
want to hurt aunt Jean or uncle Rocky’ s feelings.

Then there is:a-summer storm and the. power. goes out, so.
Jeannie lights the lamp. And Arthur appears in a a pul of blue.
smoke.

.. Arthur is a cigar-smoking ¢ genie who bears 2 an uncaiiny
resemblance to Groucho Marx. And he is ready. to offer his new. .
_- master unlimited wishes. It seems too good ‘to be true!
_ But Jeannie soon discovers Arthur’s powers are somewhat rus-

ty — all -her wishes, somehow: ‘turn into disasters, and she finds
herself in one.embarrassing. situation after ariother! —.

“Genie with the Light Blue Hair’’ will keep you: laughing un-
_ tiul the very last page. It is written in a style that is easy to read.
And you'll discover, as Jeannie Warren. does, that you don’t need
a genie to make your wishes come true!

Ellen Conford-i is the author. of more than 20 books for chil--
dren-and young adults.. Among her titles are ‘‘Hail”’, “Hail.
- Camp. Timberwood”’, “Anything for a Friend” and ‘‘The Things
I Did for Love’’.

Horrible Harry and the Green Slime by Suzy Kline |
Juvenile fiction published by Viking Kestrel.
- Second grade can be awfully boring. Sometimes it seems as
though nothing interesting will ever happen. But the South’.
_ School gang in Room 2B don’t have that problem — - they have :
Horrible Harry.. :
Horrible Harry is definitely a leader. He i is positively. bring

with great ideas‘to make: life: more-interesting. . ey maa

He leads the class on-a secret mission to- place cobwebs all
around the school. And: nearly sc scares the school secretary half to
‘deathE 9. 007 en

When the principal finds a cigarette in; ‘the cafeteria; he asks
each classroom to come up with a*No Smoking’ ‘campaign. Harry
‘stages a “‘deadly skit’’: that gets the message across! one
_* The students are given a: ‘special homéwork assignimient; they
_ must show the class how to do something.: Harry, ever resource.
ful, teaches the class how to make green’slime.’ i

‘“‘Horrible Harry and the Green Slime”’ is a wonderful’ little .
book for young children because it’s very eash to read and is well
illustrated. Horrible Harry will have you grinning from ear to ear!

All titles reviewed by Harriet adgestind are. available at the:
Terrace Public Library.

a B. C.’ KY best slr

Fiction
Figures in brackets indicate last week’s position, —
1. ( 1) The Miss Hobbema Pageant — Kinsella
2. ( 2) The Dark Half — King

( -) Daddy — Steele 2" -

( -) Spy Line — Deighton

( 6) Sorceress of,  Darshiva - — Eddings _
_( 3) Solomon Gursky was Here. — Richler :
(10) Straight — Francis 93... .

( 9) Hey Waitress — Potrebenko

( 5) Clear and Present Danger — Clancy

(-) Pillars of the Earth - ay Follett _

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
0.

1

Non-fiction

1. ( 1) The Canadian Green Consumers Guide - — ~ Troyer/
Moss ants |
( 5) Home Game — Dryden/MacGregor
( 2) Birds of Vancouver — Bovey/Campbell. :
( -) Wonderful Life — Gould
. ( 6) After the Applause — Howe/Wlkns
( 3) Inventing the Future — Suzuki
( 7) Dance on the Earth — Laurence

_

In search of clarity

Terrace Review — Wednesday, J anuary 24, 1990

Hay Fever everything y

0 u’d %

expect from Noel Cowar

The Terrace and District Arts Council and the Terrace. Communi- —

ty Band are presenting the Vancouver Arts Club Theatre’s produc-

‘tion of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever Feb. I1.in the -R.E.M. Lee

‘Theatre. The following look at famed personality and playwright: °

Noel Coward and his. play. appeared in the a May 5; 1977 issue of the .-
Vancouver Sun. L

;
ost

‘ty Max. Wyman

. the audience,

_ what we actually hear. The play

-is filled, as a character in’ an-

‘other Coward play puts it, with

. “small talk, a lot of small talk

_., with other thoughts going on
a behind. ”

In a story on page Al6 of the
Jan. 17 Terrace Review, Terrace
District Teachers’ Association

president Greig Houlden was
quoted as saying in reference to
the Ministry of Education Year
2000 curriculum proposals,
‘‘The primary teachers tend to
be. threatened. because. theirs is

the most radical change.”
Houlden actually said, ‘‘The
primary teachers tend to be re-
acting- more positively because
the changes will) hot be so great

. in their -area.. The intermediate

teachers tend -to be more
threatened because theirs i is the

most radical change.”

“But 1 believe

- The most I’ve had is just
- A talent to amuse..

Coward’s Bitter-Sweet, written

_ in 1929 — and there really a

bitter-sweetness about the way

_ ini which; in the half-century.that

has passed, this: “!talent to

" amuse” has been taken by many
"as an almost exclusive definition

of Coward’s work.

Because, of course, ‘behind the
brittle and glamorous -facade of
many of Coward’s plays we can
discover much larger and. more

- serious concerns — just as pa-

tient biographers will-no doubt
one day discover the reasons for
the ‘‘warped disenchantment
with life’ (his own term) that lay
behind the brittle and.glamorous
facade of Coward himself.

- Hay Zever is a-case in point. It.
is a witty and amusing comedy
‘of bad manners, telling of the -

complications” that arise when |

-the four members of a boorish
theater family each. invites a
guest for the weekend without
“forewarning the others.

The. dialogue. j is all that we

| -came:;to.expgtt from Coward —:

sparkling, colorful, epigram-
” matical, wicked;, But that is only
ee +, and the play’s
greatest importance is that we,
discern behind

Coward wrote Hay Fever in

three days in 1924. It was based
‘on his experiences at the home.

of U.S. actress Laurette Taylor
and her husband Hartley Man-
riers. According to biographer
Sheridan Morley, “‘they were a
highly-strung family, deeply
theatrical and prone to elaborate

o . word-games. that alwayé ended
* That since my life began,

in hysteria and ‘the entire family -
abandoning their guests to cope

oe “as best. they: could. -
The words are from: Noel .

“Given eccentricity on this.
histrionic. scale, and considering.
the unusually. large number of

. authors.on Miss. Taylor’s. guest: °
‘list, it-was inevitable that-some-. outburst of: rugged ind

one ‘would realize there was a
play. here; to Noel’s great good. °

fortuné, none of them thought
of Hay Fever before he did.” -

Coward himself loved the play

— enjoyed writing it and pro- -

ducing it, and I have frequently -
enjoyed watching it, 7 but the.
London ' opening-night | ‘critics:
were less than kind. As Coward
recalled:

“‘The press naturally and in-
evitably described it as ‘thin’,
‘tenuous’ and ‘trivial’, bec AUSE |
those are their stock phrases;for
anything later in date and. r: hier
in texture than Tite Way .aith
World, and it ran, tenudusly a

“In America, it Far ie
well. Miss Laura Hope iCrt

acting, which indeed she did :b
with the . very extenuating ‘

cumstance that her support
cast was so. uniformly drea
that if she hadn’t,
doubt if any of the audience
would have stayed in the theater:
at all.”’

The wit and urbanity — and
the theatrical facility — of the
man who caine to be called the
master has become a legend.

-As he said himself, “I am an
exceptionally gifted person, It

would be futile to deny it.”’

Born in 1899, he was 12 when
he accepted his first professional
acting role. He played a mussel .
in a children’s play called The
Goldfish, and the first line he
ever spoke on stage was
‘‘Crumbs, how. exciting! ”

’ Dubbed
‘Alexander: -Woollcott; he

I. gravely :

a

‘He ret i ied ‘hi
life in the

“life, he lie
“70th birthday, he observed
-pointedly: ‘The world “has
treated me very well — but. J
chaven’t treated it. so badly
either,”’ ;
Certainly, he was neve
“‘destiny’ s to

. 60 -plays, a dozen film
“books and. “several : hee

have: never regretted for a
“ment.”

Asa performer, his advice t to

‘fellow performers in his: plays

was pithy: “Speak clearly, don't
bump into ‘people: and, if you.
“must: have ‘motivation, think: of
yout pay. packet on Friday. mn
~ As a writer, his advice:’to

a fellow playwrights was equally
--to the point:

‘Consider. the
- public. ‘Treat: it with tact. “and
courtesy... néver. fear it.:or

‘despise it. Coax it, charm. it,-in-
- terest it, stimulate it, shock: ‘it.
iG now and then.if you must, make

. it laugh and make it ery. and
- make it think, but above all.:,
WA. never, never, never bore.the. liv.

was enthusiastically tort ¥ ing hell out of it:??

And as. a celebrity; asked

f° sushingly by a lady journalist: if
aun had. anything to say to. ‘the

A talent to amuse, of i conse

But there was much more to
‘Noel. Coward than that .—

though even the, as he. himself

~ once revealed, was not un-

touched ‘by. ‘doubts.

“F searched my mind, for long
years I searched, ‘to finda theme
solemn: enough on which to base
a really ‘important. play. It’ ‘was
only a little: while ago that..: it

came upon me “in a. blinding

flash that I‘had already wri ‘ten
several important : plays... im-
portant because they’ had 5 given.

vast number: of people a, ea

deal of pleasure,” ”

NORTHWEST ARTS AND
ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR,

. (Northern Motor Inn —
George’s Pub - — Champagne Plus, Jan. 21 to Feb. 10.

Terrace Hotel —
Gigi’s —

;

“The Touch” from Vancouver.

Augie’s — Jerry Bird, singer/pianist.
McColl Playhouse —

Bavarian Inn —

for. reservations. .

Back by popular demand, ‘‘T ie Art of War”, cabaret: ‘style,
Jan. 26 and Jan. 27. Tickets at sight and Sound.

Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 13 —
“Rocky Top” from Terrace, a country band.

Elegant dinner and dance evening. Continental music |
“(ballroom to modern dance). No cover charge. ‘Phone 635-91 ot

1

ir: ;
’ “

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