Synopses & Reviews
Blue-ribbon fun! ìRaney, dear, not everyone can be a winner,î teases Beatrice Clover. It's true that Miss Raney and her plodding old horse, Thunder, have never won a single prize at the Washita County Fair. This year Raney is determined to present those judges with the finest stack of biscuits they could ever hope to taste- and win that blue ribbon. But then Raney has more troubles than she can shake a spoon at. Her biscuits burn. Fiddle-dee-dee! Her flour bin is empty. Horsefeathers! A bad storm is brewing and she needs to get to the store fast- but Old Thunder just clop-clop-thunk-thunks along. Still, Miss Raney is mighty determined. Can she and her faithful friend, Old Thunder, find a way to become winners at last? Told in a folksy down-home voice and illustrated in exuberant watercolors, this spirited tale just goes to show that with a little luck, a lot of pluck, and a good friend, dreams can come true. Yes, indeedy!
Review
(a) folksy debut.... Raney makes an appealingly disheveled figure in Brown's fine-lined, pale-hued watercolors. Small sketches drawn to suggest sepia photographs add to the bygone-days flavor of this triumphant, slightly tall whirlwind of a tale. (Kirkus Reviews)
Review
Spirited narrative. (Booklist)
Review
In this spunky picture book, first-time author Darrow introduces perhaps the most charming pair of tornado-tossed characters since Dorothy and Toto. The Washita County Fair is coming up, and Miss Rany Cloud is dead set on winning a blue ribbon, especially because her numerous and varied previous attempts have brought nary a win, place or show. Raney's entry this year will be her tasty Sooner Biscuits. When the first batch burns and she doesn' t have the ingredients to start anew, Raney and her sorry-looking horse, Old Thunder, kick into action. Raney ignores her neighbors' warnings about impending storms and drives Old Thunder to town and back--and with her horse, is swooped up into a tornado. The flour she has bought is now 'storm sifted' and super-aerated, producing unusually light biscuits that win Raney and Old Thunder their ribbon--in a most unexpected way. Darrow stirs just the right amount of action, humor and heart into her rambunctious tale, while a healthy dollop of down-home expressions ('Oh, fiddle-dee-dee'; 'I do indeedy') adds color. The loose, wispy lines of Brown's watercolor and pen-and-ink artwork provide a fitting sense of motion and fluidity, and the dusty, creamy palette captures the feel of an Oklahoma summer. The artist's wry comic sense is a sound foil to Raney's deadpan narration. (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review)
Review
Sharon Darrow spins this down-home yarn like a seasoned storyteller... the entertaining pace unpretentious tone, and folksy dialogue make this a natural choice for reading aloud. Kathryn Brown's deftly drawn, energetic illustrations extend the tongue-in-cheek humor and are as fresh and clever as the homespun tale... (The Horn Book)
Synopsis
Miss Raney is determined to win a ribbon for her biscuits at the county fair until a tornado changes her plans. Told in a folksy, down-home voice and illustrated in lively, engaging watercolors, this spirited tale just goes to show that with a little luck, a lot of pluck and a good friend, dreams can come true.
About the Author
Sharon Darrow spent part of her childhood in Oklahoma, the setting for this book. It was inspired by a tale her aunt Thelma started to tell--"Did I ever tell you about the time a big old whirlwind came along and picked up me and my horse and buggy and twirled us into the air?"--but never finished. And so Sharon Darrow figured out the end of the story for herself. She now teaches in the M.F.A. program in Writing for Children at Vermont College and the English Department of Columbia College Chicago. This is her first children's book. She lives in Chicago, Illinois. Kathryn Brown was born and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho. She grew up with horses much like Old Thunder and, like Miss Raney, she once won a blue ribbon of her own, at the Twin Falls County Fair. She has illustrated many popular picture books, including The Old Woman Who Named Things, by Cynthia Rylant, and The Littlest Matryoshka, by Corinne Demas Bliss. She lives in South Deerfield, Massachusetts.