Fritz flies in a red balloon to the magic castle where he finds hundreds of thousands of children who have been stolen from all over the world by an evil sorcerer. The balloon has come to rescue them and return them to the place where they were stolen because the sorcerer is dead. Sounds good, right? This story is 4 1/2 pages long. The first half page outlines the situation I just gave you. The next three complete pages give reasons why fully half of the children are not excited about going home. It is just sad and depressing. I kept thinking that this isn't something I would want to read to my children or grandchildren. However, I kept thinking there HAD to be a point where things got better so I continued reading.
Yes, the last page IS different: there are no more stories about why the children don't want to go home. One girl even offers to take another child home with her. Her family has plenty of food. She knows they will give the boy food and clothes; he won't have to work so hard picking oranges; and the two of them can attend school together. Things are looking up, right? NO! He only wants to know if her family will let his brothers, sisters, and parents come too. She just shrugs.
The children decide there has to be something wrong with the world, and they are going to stay at the castle, read books and newspapers, and find out what is happening and why. They send a note telling this to their families. The end.
There is NO solution; NOTHING changes for the children; NO one goes home; and the reader wonders if the children hadn't been RESCUED by the "evil sorcerer" rather than "stolen." Sounds to me like they have definitely been better off since they arrived at the castle than they were before being stolen. Why in the world would I want the children in my life to read this? I understand this is what really happens all around the world, but do children need to hear all of this? Who thinks it's a good idea to make CHILDREN responsible for finding a solution? Why give them something so depressing with no solution offered? Stay away from this! Your children do NOT need to be depressed while they are so young! The world will kick them in the teeth soon enough: you don't need to do it now.
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