Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Dallas Public Library | + SUMMER Ketteman | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Library | PRE FIC KET | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Heat Wave is the hilarious tall tale of one farm girl's battle against a fluke of nature that descends upon the rich Kansas farmland. Crops and livestock comically fall victim to the smothering heat wave, only to be rescued by our determined, maverick-minded heroine--who refuses to be defeated by a puff of hot air.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 5In 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Surreal artwork sets a tongue-in-cheek tone for this rollicking original tall tale that would do Paul Bunyan proud. When record temperatures send the mercury shooting "out of the porch thermometer like a rocket," strange things begin to happen on a Kansas farmflowers pull up their roots and high-tail it for the shade beneath the porch; geese fly through a hot cloud and emerge "plucked, stuffed, and roasted," and cornfields release a blizzard of popcorn. Fortunately, the family's quick-witted daughter saves the day, concocting schemes to rescue their harvest (such as milking the cows, who by this time are giving melted butter, and pouring it over the popcorn to sell at a local drive-in theater) and chase the heat away (a crop of iceberg lettuce does the trick). Ketteman's (Bubba, the Cowboy Prince) deadpan delivery heightens the humor, and Goto (Shooting Star) makes hay visually with color-saturated images that play off the intense weather conditions: fire-engine red farm equipment and emerald green crops loom as readers look up from below or through fish-eye and wide-angle lenses. The pop-eyed livestock skates close to the grotesqueparticularly the cows with their bulging eyes and uddersbut manage to carry off the intended caricature. Verbally and visually clever, this is a diverting new addition to the recent crop of over-the-top tales. Ages 5-8. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Any pleasure to be had from the surreal effects of an unnatural hot spell hitting a family farm (corn pops on the vine, oats become oatmeal, cows produce melted butter, etc.) is subverted by the over-literal (and overpainted) illustrations. The people bring to mind horror-movie killer dolls, and the animals, with their crazed eyes and gaping mouths, are even more over the top. From HORN BOOK Fall 1998, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
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. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ages 5^-8. When a passing heat wave gets snagged on the barn's weather vane, strange things start happening: the mercury blasts out of the porch thermometer like a rocket; a flock of geese flies in one side of the stalled heat wave and emerges from the other plucked, stuffed, and roasted; Ma's flowers pull themselves up by their roots and flee into the shade. And--well, you get the idea; though the story ostensibly takes place in Kansas, it's clearly Tall Tale Country we're visiting, instead. It's finally up to a plucky young farm girl to save the day with an ingenious scheme involving produce (lettuce give credit where credit's due!). Goto's hot-colored pictures are as over-the-top as the eye-popping tale. For further tall-tale fun, don't forget Sid Fleischman's classics about McBroom and his wonderful one-acre farm. --Michael Cart