Heat Wave

Kindergarten-Grade 5?In the style of a rollicking American tall tale, Ketteman spins a story in which things go from bad to worse on a Kansas farm when a Heat Wave hits. Just how hot was it? Hot enough to make the corn pop in the field, causing the hound dog to turn blue (because he thought it was snow, of course) and hot enough so that an unfortunate flock of geese that flew through it came out the other side, all plucked, roasted, and stuffed. Enter the narrator, a quick-thinking young girl whose big brother Hank used to tease that "girls could never be farmers." Her solutions are even more far-fetched than the roasted flock of geese: she bakes a huge loaf of bread to lure in the crows with their great fanning wings; and, when that doesn't work, she plants lettuce to cool the air. Iceberg lettuce. The bold illustrations are incredibly clear and lively and contribute significantly to each scene's general disarray and commotion. Using acrylic, oil, and colored pencils, Goto has created full-page panoramas balanced on the same fine line between reality and fantasy as the story. Younger children will enjoy the prescribed exaggeration and silliness, and older children might well be encouraged to create their own.?Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ketteman (Bubba, the Cowboy Prince, p. 1646, etc.) repeats herself in this pack of lies fashioned into a Kansas-style tall tale. Just as Beanie was not up to the job (``too young'') in the author's 1993 tale, The Year of No More Corn, the narrator in this story has been told by her brother that girls can't be farmers. Once again there's a heat wave, once again the corn pops off the stalk. In the other book, chickens laid hard-boiled eggs; in this one the cows jump around on the hot ground so much that their milk turns to butter. That's not the end of the tall tales, which come to a close only after the narrator thinks to plant iceberg lettuce to cool the place down. Goto's eye-popping, thermometer-busting illustrations are perfectly matched to the story's exaggerated dimensions; weird angles and brash colors give the fields and farm a parched look ideal for the antics in the foreground--even though those antics are too familiar. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.