All-of-a-Kind: Remembering June Cummins ed. by Michael Joseph, Lissa Paul and Joseph T. Thomas, Jr

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Reviewed by: All-of-a-Kind: Remembering June Cummins ed. by Michael Joseph, Lissa Paul and Joseph T. Thomas, Jr Lois Rauch Gibson (bio) All-of-a-Kind: Remembering June Cummins. Edited by Michael Joseph, Lissa Paul, Joseph T. Thomas, Jr. Cats in the Basement Press, 2020. June Cummins was a professor, mentor, daughter, wife, mother, friend, colleague, air commuter, children’s literature scholar, and active member of Children’s Literature Association. All-of-a-Kind: Remembering June Cummins celebrates her life in all of these roles before her much-too-early death at age 54 from ALS in 2018. A collection of tributes that grew out of the memorial service held at San Diego State University a year after her death, the book portrays her through the words of those who knew her well and who mourn her loss. Many of the remembrances are edited versions of talks from that memorial service, giving them a certain poignance. Some, such as Michelle Martin’s and Michael Borgstrom’s, are intensely personal, focusing on the writer/speaker’s relationship with June, and some of these tributes reveal as much about the speaker as about June—as often occurs in such talks. Some are poetic, such as Joseph T. Thomas, Jr.’s “A Few Words for June Cummins,” and one is actually a visual poem, by Katie E. Strode. Others focus more on her scholarship. It is worth noting that, because of the nature of the book, no contributor calls her Cummins. All are personal friends and/or professional colleagues who refer to her as June. For that reason, I will refer to June Cummins throughout this review as June rather than as Cummins. This collection is not a Festschrift, as it is not honoring a retiring academic with essays in praise of her work. Nor is it a biography, though it has elements of both genres and others. But it definitely honors June in highlighting her many personal and professional achievements, and for a reader like this reviewer, who had met June but did not know her well, it also provides a rich and insightful overview of her life and work. Editor Michael Joseph notes in his introduction that the book is divided into three types of contributions: edited transcripts of seven talks at the memorial service; invited papers by close friends or colleagues; and a focus [End Page 204] on June’s major scholarly work, a biography of Sydney Taylor, author of the All-of-a-Kind Family books (hence the title of this volume). This last section includes an essay by Alexandra Dunietz, describing how she collaborated with June after June became too ill to complete the book on her own. The final entry is an early article by June on Sydney Taylor’s work. Among the most illuminating of the contributions is Michael Joseph’s “The Year of Living Dangerously.” Joseph carefully selects from June’s comments on child_lit, an online discussion list for people interested in children’s literature. His expert organization of her comments, particularly about Alcott and about swastikas, plus his placement of those comments within their contexts, shows not only important aspects of June’s scholarship and interests, but also of her character. It is a fascinating read. Another particularly informative contribution by Lissa Paul, “Making it Work,” elegantly weaves together glimpses into June’s life and her scholarship, making convincing connections between the two. She connects June’s comments on journeys and time travel in Harry Potter, for example, to June’s (and her own) experiences as airplane commuters between their homelife and their work at universities far from home. She connects June’s scholarship on Sydney Taylor with June’s (and her own) relationship to “the identity politics of the Jewish diasporic experience that shaped both [of their] lives” (123). Throughout her essay, Paul illustrates how her relationship with June allows her insider interpretations of June’s scholarship, as she intelligently and warmly shares knowledge the reader would not otherwise have. Phillip Serrato’s “She Did Gothic Studies, Too” made me wish more than one of June’s published papers had been included in this collection. Serrato focuses on June’s papers...