THE ADVENTURE OF CHARLIE AND HIS WHEAT. STRAW HAT

by Berniece T.--Adapt. Hiser ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1986

This ""memorat"" (a folk tale said by the author really to have happened) is told in the vernacular of the Kentucky mountain folk by folklorist Hiser, who grew up there. Charlie's daddy is off fighting in the Civil War, so times are hard. There is no money to buy a straw hat so, with an armful of wheat, Granny makes him one, decorated with cloth from his dad's old plaid shirt. When a band of soldiers wanders by, Charlie hides the hat in a haystack, shooing away the cattle lest they eat it, but a nosey ewe almost gives his secret away. The soldiers think she'd make a fine dinner, and set off after her. Both cattle and sheep get away, and their owner rewards Charlie with a ten-dollar gold piece. There is nothing difficult about the dialect; the reader will soon be caught up in the flavor and fun of it, as when Charlie tells his Granny, ""I want me a straw hat to wear when school starts. . .It's going to hot me to death walking all that two miles twice a day. . .with nothing to protect my head from the sunball."" Szilagyi captures the feeling of mountain ways in her uncluttered paintings, with bursts of brilliant color on each sunny page, making up for the occasional lapses in draughtsmanship, such as the simplistic line representing a mouth on many faces.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1986

Categories: CHILDREN'S