Customer Reviews

McBroom's Ear

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The third book about the adventures of farmer Josh McBroom, his wife Melissa, and their several red-haird children (WillJILLHesterCHESTERPeterPOLLYTimTOMMaryLARRYandlittleCLARINDA) was originally published in 1969 and is illustrated by original series artist Kurth Werth. This one, typically, shows the kinds of near-calamaties and amazing fortunes that can occur on the fabulous one-acre farm (where ANYTHING will grow, and grow wildly fast and large) because of the weather - in this case, summer weather so hot that you have to boil water to cool it off, so hot that wax beans melt on the vine and that flies drop out of the sky with sunstroke. You get the idea.

This tall tale mostly concerns the McBroom clan's attempts to get their amazing crops ready to take to the fair, only to be thwarted by the biggest clouds of grasshoppers you ever did see. McBroom's ingenious plan? Plant hot peppers in the miracle soil, and give them hoppers a tongue-torture that'll keep them away from the farm just long enough to grow one special crop to top all the prize winners that ever were. Even when a gigantic ear of corn is eventually ready to go, though, our family's troubles aren't over - and you'll just have to read it yourself to see how they get it to the fair, and what happens after.

Great fun for tall-tale lovers of all ages, one of my favorites of the five books I've read now though I think McBroom's Zoo remains at the top of the heap, and that's probably the one I'd pick for new readers to try first.