Customer Reviews

Old Thunder and Miss Raney

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was an wonderful story. My child loved the illustrations and the "fiddle-dee" and other repeated phrases throughout the book. It was a long story but flowed very well keeping my child's interest to the very end of the book. She loves the horse named Old Thunder and the tale about how the biscuits were made. We also plan to bake the biscuits from the recipe on the back cover. I recommend this book to anyone with small children with a love of horses and horse stories.

This is a delicious story, as delicious as the biscuits that Miss Raney bakes over and over, hoping they'll win the Blue Ribbon at the fair. But Miss Raney and her horse Old Thunder, both of them mocked for not winning in the past, are confronted with obstacle after obstacle. Miss Raney tells her horse to pay no nevermind to those who scoff at them. The author cleverly sets up the reader for one ending . . . but delivers another, more satisfying one.

This is a charming book by a skilled Southern storyteller. Darrow takes what could be a lightweight folk tale and adds a sophisticated moral that doesn't underestimate its (young) readers. The illustrations nicely compliment the book, adding just the right amount of whimsy.