Lovely story - I didn't even know it existed until today. Lucky me for finding it! ( )

A wonderful book that was the first hardcover I bought for myself. My original copy was loved to death over the years and now my brother gave me two copies! ( )

I haven't re-read this for many years and it seemed like time. A copy floated around the house when I was a child and I bought my own copy some decades later. I adore this faux children's book narrated by a beatnik child who lives on Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village with her parents, Hugh (a poet) and Marcia (a sculptor). The text is funny and poignant by turns, with cultural references that I didn't understand as a child but appreciate now. The illustrations by Louise Fitzhugh are charming and dynamic. I've always loved the illustration on page 86 where High and Marcia are asleep on a bare mattress, curled up fetally with their backs to each other. If you remember the Village when it was, like, not square, you'll, like, dig Suzuki Beane. ( )

suzuki beane lives in a pad on bleeker street in greenwich village with her parent, hugh, a poet, and marcia, a sculptress--suzuki is a very hip "beat" kid (she never capitalizes a letter or uses a period at the end of a sentence)--suzuki like writes poetry too--like cool--like real crazy--her boyfriend henry martin is a real square--but suzuki thinks he's still the end--suzuki's teacher miss shoemaker is one slow chick who tells suzuki that "like" is no way to start a sentence-- louise fitzhugh has drawn like these very cool pen-and-ink illustrations of suzuki dancing--henry and suzuki on the school bus and the subway--henry's uppity parents--dull cats who write poetry from dullsville

By today's standards, Suzuki Beane would be regarded as an emotionally neglected kid. But this book is as unique as the Beat literature it emulates. It gives a very vivid portrait of what it was like to be a child being raised by oh-so-cool parents of the Beat Generation. Sandra Scoppettone lived in Greenwich Village and claims she knows Suzuki well because, in part, she was Suzuki. The late Louise Fitzhugh was a young up-and-coming illustrator at the time this book was written. ( )