by Joe Hayes ; illustrated by Antonio Castro L. ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 6, 2016
Tongue-in-cheek fun.
A tall country tale involving dentures, beans, and an amazing hambone.
Life on a farm can be hard. One year, the soil is so unforgiving that all the family can grow is beans. Dad makes it work by packing them in sacks and taking them far away to sell. Still, all he can buy with the money he earns is a big hambone, just what’s needed to flavor the family’s beans for dinner. Grandpa loves this dinner so much he declares an enthusiastic “HAL-LA-LOO-YA!” Meanwhile, the narrator’s “economical” mom saves the hambone for next week’s dinner. News spreads to the neighbors, who borrow this splendid hambone. Now the hambone is away from the family for two or three days at a time, but Grandpa “would always manage to wrangle an invitation to dinner.” One day, Mrs. McIvey drops by to borrow the hambone to make a nice supper after her daughter’s wedding; of course she invites Grandpa. He rushes to the well to wash his face and sneezes, sending his dentures down into the darkness. Quick-thinking brother Sam ties the hambone to a fishing line and lowers it, to be clamped on tight by the dentures, which “had grown…used to eating beans flavored with that hambone.” Alas, the line snaps, but all is not lost—now the neighbors come by for some of that ham-flavored well water. Storyteller Hayes spins his yarn with aplomb, punctuating it with the titular exclamation. Castro L.’s illustrations suggest Norman Rockwell, depicting a largely white rural Southwest community.
Tongue-in-cheek fun. (Picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-941026-54-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2017
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by Tracey West ; illustrated by Graham Howells ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 2014
With plenty left to be resolved, the next entry will be eagerly sought after.
Drake has been selected by the king to serve as a Dragon Master, quite a change for an 8-year-old farmer boy.
The dragons are a secret, and the reason King Roland has them is a mystery, but what is clear is that the Dragon Stone has identified Drake as one of the rare few children who have a special connection with dragons and the ability to serve as a trainer. Drake’s dragon is a long brown creature with, at first, no particular talents that Drake can identify. He calls the dragon Worm. It isn’t long before Drake begins to realize he has a very strong connection with Worm and can share what seem to be his dragon’s thoughts. After one of the other Dragon Masters decides to illicitly take the dragons outside, disaster strikes. The cave they are passing through collapses, blocking the passageway, and then Worm’s special talent becomes evident. The first of a new series of early chapter books, this entry is sure to attract fans. Brief chapters, large print, lots of action, attractive illustrations in every spread, including a maplike panorama, an enviable protagonist—who wouldn’t want to be a Dragon Master?—all combine to make an entertaining read.
With plenty left to be resolved, the next entry will be eagerly sought after. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-64624-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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by Tracey West ; illustrated by Matt Loveridge
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by Rosanne Parry ; illustrated by Kirbi Fagan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 29, 2023
A feel-good tale of a clever and determined stallion set against a well-developed landscape.
In mid-19th-century Nevada, a colt named Sky grows up to lead his band of wild horses.
Parry’s moving story follows the pattern of her recent animal tales, A Wolf Called Wander (2019) and A Whale of the Wild (2020), chronicling a wild animal’s life in the first person, imagining its point of view, and detailing and appreciating the natural world it inhabits. As Sky grows from wobbly newborn to leader of his family, he faces more than the usual challenges for colts who must fight their stallions or leave their herds when they are grown up. Fagan’s appealing black-and-white illustrations help readers envision this survival story. Sky’s adventures include forced service with the Pony Express; being befriended by an enslaved Paiute boy; escaping to find his now-captured band; and helping them escape the silver miners who’d destroyed their world. Animal lovers will applaud his ingenuity and stubbornness. Although Sky’s band has suffered serious injuries (his mother is blind), he and Storm, a mare who was his childhood companion, lead them toward safety in a new wilderness. The writer’s admiration for these wild horses and her concerns about human destruction of their environment come through even more clearly in a series of concluding expository essays discussing the wild horses, the Indigenous Americans, the natural history of the Great Basin, silver mining, and the Pony Express.
A feel-good tale of a clever and determined stallion set against a well-developed landscape. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9780062995957
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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