[The Children's Story] represents a new sort of work for the author of King Rat and Shogun. Frankly didactic and with an explicit moral, it can be read in less than the twenty-three minutes of its action, but during the short duration of the drama, events take place which leave the reader uncomfortably thoughtful about severe current social ills and parental irresponsibility in the intellectual development of their children. The Children's Story details the possible consequences of that neglect. (pp. 243-44)

It is no small task effectively to help in the development of a young mind, but Mr. Clavell suggests we must try. Though first, he says, we must care. Failing that responsibility, we condemn children and the adults they become to live with accepted ideas they do not understand, leaving them ripe as potential toadies for the next snake oil merchant who comes to town. (p. 244)

R...