Four Stupid Cupids

By Gregory Maguire
Illustrated by Elaine Clayton

Clarion Books, 2000
$15.^{00 Hard Cover}
183. pages

It's Valentine's Day and guess what - some cupids, the little true-love guys, have been hanging around Miss Earth's classroom. What a year these kids are having! They have already experienced poisonous spiders, ghosts, and aliens. Who knows how much mischief four little cupids might cause?

The answer is: lots. The girls of the Tattletales club quickly hatch a plan to find a true love for Miss Earth. But even with the cupids' magic arrows it is not easy making two people love each other. When Miss Earth falls for a frog the class suddenly has a real problem, and once again the Tattletales and their rivals the Copycats will have to work together to make things right

And once again Gregory Maguire slips, effortlessly, it seems, into the minds of his young characters. He never actually says how old these kids are, but he has their schoolyard uneasiness for romance spot-on. Love is repulsive and dangerous and enticing all at once, and it can be very important to find a safe balance among the conflicting views. (This is true for parents as well as the kids!) One valentine card sums it up nicely: "Love is scary. Like is not. Love is yucky. Like is lucky . . . ."

Four Stupid Cupids continues the countdown Maguire began with Seven Spiders Spinning. It is a little more ambitious than its predecessors, and a little less successful, but still full of the same wisdom hidden within broad comedy, including some quiet statements on the hurtful use and misuse of the word "stupid."

Seven Spiders Spinning. Six Haunted Hairdos. Five Alien Elves. Four Stupid Cupids. I'm a little worried, though: if Maguire continues in this direction, what will happen to the Copycats and the Tattletales after he reaches "one"?

About the Copycats, the Tattletales, and Miss Earth:

• Seven Spiders Spinning. Clarion Books, 1994
• Six Haunted Hairdos. Clarion Books, 1997
• Five Alien Elves. Clarion Books, 1998
• Four Stupid Cupids. Clarion Books, 2000

Reviewed by Wendy Morris. © 2001 by Wendy Morris.

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