JACK AND THE WHOOPEE WIND

Such is the wind in Whoopee, Wyoming, that cats have to be tied down and the chickens are all bald. Jack doesn't mind a breeze now and then, but he gets riled at a wind that can snatch his dog up into the air--he's not going to let it get away with that. Evenly matched in craft and stubbornness, the two do battle. Jack, with the help of the whole town, tries a giant fan, a huge windsock, a curtain, a drive-in movie screen, even a U-shaped tunnel. The wind defeats every plan until Jack comes to the conclusion that, if it can't be stopped, it can be used. He collects all the state's scrap metal and builds a forest of electricity-generating windmills that not only keep the wind too busy to get into mischief, but make everyone in town rich as well. Like Steven Kellogg in Purdy's Iva Dunnit and the Big Wind, Gackenbach uses dramatic, swirling lines and plenty of windswept hair, beards, manes and grass. The wind seems more playful then threatening, and the pictures are crowded with airborne livestock, furniture and less identifiable objects. An entertaining tale, slightly taller than average.