Pee-Wee Harris

Pee-wee Harris arrives at his uncle's farm expecting a quiet visit. Instead, he finds a dead-end by-road that is about to become very much alive. When the bridge on the main highway burns down, all that traffic comes pouring through the country road, and suddenly this sleepy stretch of pavement is thick with automobiles. Most folks see an inconvenience. Pee-wee sees opportunity. He builds a little refreshment stand right along that newly busy thoroughfare, because that's who he is: a scout with energy to burn and an instinct for the main chance. This is early 20th-century children's fiction in its most uncomplicated, buoyant form. No dark twists, no heavy-handed lessons, no moral weight to carry. Just a kid seeing a gap and filling it, with plenty of mischief and friendship woven through. Fitzhugh understood the precise frequency on which children laugh, and Pee-wee's escapades deliver that frequency with cheerful reliability. For readers who crave nostalgic, uncomplicated adventure, or who want to see what boys' adventure fiction looked like before the genre got complicated, this is pure period charm.