As the story evolves, the reader learns that the tide, Only Children, has multiple implications: first that the narrative will only be from the viewpoint of the children, Mary Ann Hubbard and Lolly Zimmern; second, that they, like many of the adults present, are only-children; third, that at some point even the adults behave as if they were "only children;" fourth, and most importantly, that the dismissal of children's questioning with the common rationalization, "they're only children," is insulting and dishonest. Lurie's most important social issue is adults' common underestimation of what children see and struggle to understand, and to the radical potential and vulnerability of a child's mind. Following the experiences of the two eight-year-olds through a Fourth-of-July weekend vacation to the Catskill Mountains in 1935, we witness their parents' behavior from a new perspective—that of a surprisingly opened, sensitive, and critical child-eye.

The...