By all means, if you are interested in seeing a few of McCloskey's works, pick this up. But if you're looking for a biography of ROBERT McCloskey, you won't find it here. This is more of a memoir of JANE McCloskey with some odd little bits about aliens and spying thrown in. So odd. So poorly written. Imagine your elderly aunt who has never written anything in her life decides to write her version of the family story... that's what the writing is like. ( )

I was terribly disappointed by this book, one which I'd been awaiting breathlessly for several months.

The illustrations are wonderful, even though there are a lot that are from the books McCloskey published during his lifetime. I would have preferred to see way more of the unpublished drawings and paintings that are referred to in the text. But oh, how lovely to see the ones included here.

Five stars for the illustrations. Make no mistake about how wonderful they are.

The text was not what I was expecting. Not at all. First, this book is Jane McCloskey's memoir, NOT a biography of her father. I came away knowing very little new information about Mr. McCloskey and far more than I ever wished to know about the life of his daughter, what she thinks about UFOs, her school experience in Mexico and how her first period was humiliating.

The prose is dreadful, very nearly unreadable. Banal, clunky and painful to read.


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