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 Raney 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 backDand, 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 ribbonDin 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 (The Littlest Matryoshka) 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. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ages 5-7. This tall tale set in Oklahoma tells of Miss Raney, who has previously been disappointed in her efforts to win a blue ribbon at the county fair, and her horse, Old Thunder, who is swaybacked and slow, but much beloved. Miss Raney relates the story, which begins with a tornado that sweeps them into the sky on the way home from the store. She uses the cyclone-sifted flour to bake up a batch of exceptionally light biscuits. Disappointed that someone else wins the blue ribbon again this year, she feeds the remaining biscuits to Old Thunder, who astonishes her by entering the plowhorse race and winning. The judges also give Miss Raney's biscuits a blue ribbon for "best horse feed." The spirited narrative has a folksy twang that suits the story well, and Brown's ink drawings, washed with gentle watercolors, reflect the broad humor as well as the subtle observations of nature that the story provides. Pair this with Swamp Angel (1994) for a lively story session. Carolyn Phelan
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