ROOSTER CROWS FOR DAY

Winner of the fourth Thomas Jefferson Award, and a good choice. Burman knows his Mississippi River people, and the pattern of his story carries through it the thread of that love of the river which Little Doc never loses though his wanderlust, his thirst for knowledge of new places and things, takes him to the jungles and deserts of Africa. Sensitive, artistic and yet at the same time intrepid and able, Little Doc, with his devoted henchman and engineer of his fish boat, Poppy, go out to Africa from New Orleans, to run a steamboat on a river in the Congo. They are tricked by the of Big Business; they are almost defeated again and again by her jungle worst; yellow fever takes from Little Doc the girl be has grown to love; the desert left him almost at death's door -- and finally, the two of them come back to their beloved Cotton Valley eager for a taste of triumph, only to find that their departure had been barely noted and then forgotten, their adventures dis and that Little Doc was not going to be a member of The Boosters Club after all. It took the loyal Prince Joe to give them back their faith -- and an outsider to may the tribute. An original story, with warm characterization and rich color. I liked it.