shooting at stray rodents with an air gun and cheering at Laurie's Little League games, he is mostly a stereotypical hands-off father who makes domestic proclamations from behind his newspaper. He is also shown to be deeply interested—nearly obsessed—with his coin collection. Laurie: A good-natured, athletic little boy, Laurie enjoys a variety of typical all-American pursuits including baseball, Cub Scouts, horses, and getting into scuffles. Like any small boy, he resents when his mother shows him too much affection in public, and he frequently expresses embarrassment of his younger sisters (whom he refers to collectively as "the kids"). One of the major points in the story comes when Laurie is struck by a car and injured; although this is played off for comedy in the book, this incident actually occurred with the real Laurence Hyman. He is five when the major action opens and about nine when the story ends. Jannie: She is roughly three years younger than Laurie. She is presented as an imaginative yet extremely traditionally feminine little girl who enjoys playing games of make-believe with her dolls and her seven imaginary "daughters". While Jannie often deliberately sets herself up as the winsome "good girl" to Laurie's more frequent naughtiness ("Was Laurie bad? I'm good, aren't I? Did Laurie do something new bad?"), the two older children often work in collusion to frustrate their parents. Sally: Referred to for much of the book as "the baby" (until the prospect of another infant usurps her status), Sally is roughly three years younger than Jannie. While occasionally joining forces with her older siblings, Sally is more often described as living in "a form-fitting fairyland". She is highly imaginative, to the point of baffling her parents, and is often stubborn and self-assured beyond her years. Barry: The youngest of the children, Barry appears only as a baby newly arrived from the hospital. The other children admire him briefly ("I guess we figured on something a little bigger") before dismissing him as something to keep their mother busy now that they "are all grown up." Sources Penguin page of the book References 1952 short story collections Short story collections by Shirley Jackson Books by Shirley Jackson