Mother is a Queen, sister is a Princess, and daddy is a cuckold, as seen by a 9-year-old Susan [in "The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed"]. One day a fierce Baron invades their castle in Dixie to take the Queen away to Splitsville in his big black car. Meanwhile, on the junior level, a dreadful little summer visitor forms a club to show the kids how to play doctor, and worse. The dogbushes, by the way, are not dogwood, but a place where a stray dog was found. Ah youth … youth, what novels are committed in thy name!

Martin Levin, "Reader's Report: 'The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed'," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1968 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), November 17, 1968, p. 82.