THE LATE GREAT HUMAN ROAD SHOW. Jiles, Paulette. Vancouver, Talonbooks, c1986. 193pp, paper, $9.95, ISBN 0-88922-239-8. CIP Grades 7 and up Reviewed by Ruth Cosstick Volume 15 Number 3 1987 May There is an eerie silence under the smog that covers Toronto. No radio, TV, newspapers, electricity, or running water. No people. Well just a few, disparate groups who gradually emerge in search of food, free for the taking from the shelves of deserted shops. No one seems to know what happened or where everyone has gone. Doubt and fear breed suspicion, leading to violence. Post-disaster world is a horrifying subject that The Late Great Human Road Show relieves with zany characters and a cow with personality. Cow is appropriated by twelve-year-old Benjamin and his small group of roving juveniles who are coping as well as anyone in a city bereft of control. A colourful street person takes the children under her wing, or perhaps it is the other way round. By producing a road show, they hope to support themselves on a proposed journey away from the abandoned city. In spite of the sombre subject, the light and literary touch given by award-winning poet turned novelist, Paulette Jiles, makes this a highly readable story. Horst Siegler's cover photograph is an added attraction. Ruth Cosstick, Ottawa, Ont.