Beanie's grandfather tells him about the failure of the corn crop in 1928 and how he was able to make corn trees grow from whittled corn kernels.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With Beanie too young and Old Grampa too old to help plant corn on the family farm, there's nothing for the pair to do but share a story. As he sits and whittles, Old Grampa tells Beanie about "the year of no more corn," back in 1928, when various forces of nature conspired to oblige the Indiana farmers to plant and replant their cornfields, each time to no avail. But Old Grampa claims to have saved the day by planting corn kernels whittled from wood, from which sprang up a forest of corncob-bearing trees. Ketteman ( Not Yet, Yvette ) spins her tall tale in a pleasingly folksy deadpan style, her vivid descriptions bringing the old man's outrageous account to life until the reader, like young Beanie, would like nothing better than to believe every word: "The ground got hotter and hotter, until suddenly those kernels started popping. They popped until the cornfields looked like they were covered with winter snow. Every man, woman and child in Indiana had to eat nothing but popcorn for weeks." Parker's ( Pop Corn and Ma Goodness ) bright, animated watercolors are rimmed with wriggling ink lines in a manner somewhat reminiscent of William Steig. With a manic energy appropriate to the text, his paintings winningly portray windblown houses sailing through the air and hordes of marauding inky-black crows. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
When Beanie complains that ``Dad says I'm too young to help'' plant corn, Grampa allows that ``that's funny, because he said I'm too old''--and wisely seizes the opportunity to describe the spring of 1928, when his successive plantings were destroyed by a string of disasters rivaling the plagues of Egypt: floods, wind, crows, a sun so hot the hens laid hard-boiled eggs and the corn popped. With the seed corn exhausted, Grampa says, he whittled a wooden ear (like the one he's making now), planted the kernels, and grew an extraordinary, never-to-be-duplicated crop of corn-laden trees. Ketteman's wry, folksy telling of her original tale is colorful and well paced. Parker's elegantly scribbled pen drawings are drenched in the sunny colors of the Midwest; the tender scenes of the boy and the old man together are especially lovely. A lively, likable tall tale. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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