The Real Pretend

by Joan Donaldson, Tasha Tudor (Illustrator)

Everyone enjoys a game of pretend, but when Kathy plays a salesperson for a mail-order catalogue, she and her brother face some unexpected consequences.

Genres: Childrens, Art

25 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1992

About the author

Reading and writing summarize how I spent most of my childhood, and then I married a farmer. I still love both activities, but now I must braid together reading, writing and caring for a farm, a large garden, and all the other various activities that sustain our homestead. Yet, those jobs precipitate stories that flow into both my personal essays and novels.
When I am not working, I play my harp and piece quilts for the love of color.

Reviews

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on a family story of the author. A young girl pretends to take grocery orders for her neighbors. They all play along and all is well, until the girls brother sends the order off as part of the game. When the company fulfills the order, their mother makes them ask each neighbor to pay for their share of the groceries. I guess I could only see myself as one of the neighbors, annoyed that I now had to buy groceries I didn’t intend to. The ending was cute as the kid’s earned a commission and had a nice sibling moment spending it. And the pictures were pretty and old timey, but the story wasn’t my favorite .

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute story about the authors Grandma and her brother. What makes the story so charming is the beautiful illustrations by Tasha Tudor.