Poetry. When a young mother with a traveling husband turns to her five- year-old son and says, Now you'll have to be the man of the house, ' what burdens will that gifted child unwittingly assume? He is the precocious boy we remember from childhood, the one who sees too much, hears everything, and understands only a fraction. Never shy about disclosure, he puzzles through it all, rumor and innuendo, the half-heard, and the above-his-head, aided and abetted by his slightly- more-worldly neighbor friend, Bergy. Not knowing what he doesn't know, our narrator trumpets and parrots, reports and announces. And so many questions How does the favorite aunt always know the best gifts to give? And how is it possible for the Lone Ranger to show up with his horse Silver one Saturday afternoon at Powderhorn Park? And, more importantly, just who on earth is Sam Hill? These and the answers to oh-so-many questions can be found in the pages of THE MAN OF THE HOUSE. --Debra Marquart