More Than a Pinch, Less Than a Bee Sting

by: C.A. Hartnell

Published by: Hannibal Books

Reviewed by Barbara Broom

C.A. Hartnell’s More Than a Pinch, Less Than a Bee Sting is part memoir, part fictionalized novel. While it is about Hartnell’s experiences in El Monte, California, it’s also about life in the United States during the spring of 1955. It’s the American culture of a simpler but still dangerous time.

The adventures of Carol Ann, Pete and the other children revolve around the fun and seriousness of the times; there is polio and the ‘shot pot’, the fear of getting ‘nuked’ and needing fallout shelters, but there is also the simple excitement of waiting for the neighborhood’s ice cream man and shopping for Easter dresses.

Join Hartnell for a dash to the past in More Than a Pinch, Less Than a Bee Sting. While the story is directed at 8-to-12-year-old children, I think adults who lived through that time will be the most interested.

Armchair Interviews says: A look at our American past.

Author’s Web site: http://www.ClassicUSA.com