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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J Fic Beard, D. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
On a scorching July day in 1950, a fabulous fat man drives into Wetumka, Oklahoma. F. Bam Morrison is selling tickets to Bohn's United Circus Shows, and the townspeople are buying--all, that is, except ol' man Swank, who says F. Bam Morrison is a two-faced weasel. Smitten with Morrison, ten-year-old Bobbie Jo Hailey--and mean Clara Jean Knox, whom she befriends--unwittingly joins the effort to bamboozle Wetumka. When Bobbie Jo realizes her mistake, Morrison is on his way out of town, leaving her disappointed but intact--and greatly enriched by her relationship with the flimflam man. Lovingly illustrated by Eileen Christelow, Darleen Bailey Beard's delightful story is based on a real episode in Wetumka's history, still celebrated annually as Sucker Day!
Author Notes
Darleen Bailey Beard , author of Twister and The Babbs Switch Story , lives in Tuttle, Oklahoma.
Eileen Christelow has written and/or illustrated many books for children. She lives in Dummerston, Vermont.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6Ostensibly revolving around a confidence game that the residents of Wetumka, OK, lost during the summer of 1950, this quirky novel is not quite what it first seems. Beard gives her charmless con man the catalytic power to heal stuttering and forge friendships while, of course, lying "smooth as glass" to everyone. Bobbie Jo, the 10-year-old narrator with a speech impediment, sets the scene and tells how life in the small town changes when F. Bam Morrison drives up in his fancy turquoise Chevy and announces that the circus is coming. He recruits Bobbie Jo as his promotional aide, and she eases her guilty conscience for calling the bullying Clara Jean's daddy a drunk by making the older, friendless girl her partner. The youngsters help the flimflam man peddle his "limited" advance supply of tickets. They also collaborate to fulfill the "show must go on" promise that their devious mentor made. Following the "if you get stuck with a lemon, make lemonade" philosophy, the hoodwinked townsfolk create an annual Sucker Day Festival in self-effacing commemoration of their gullibility. Some of the narration is funny, laced with delightful vernacular"A fly could have flown in [to Clara Jean's gaping mouth] and roasted marshmallows and she wouldn't even have noticed"but, in the end, the ludicrous idea that this bamboozler may be "true blue" sorry (he delivers a pathetic I-never-meant-to-hurt-you apology to the ever-credulous Bobbie Jo as he heads out of town with everyone's money) does young readers a disservice by validating his lies.John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A promising premise and colorful cast of characters don't quite overcome the abrupt finish in Beard's (The Pumpkin-Man from Piney Creek) middle-grade novel set in 1950. Ten-year-old Bobbie Jo Hailey, the appealing heroine, meets up with a jolly, fast-talking salesman, F. Bam Morrison, who promises to bring the Big Top to sleepy little Wetumka, Okla. He drafts into his cause Bobbie Jo and mean Clara Jean Knox, who wears clear plastic boots even when it's sunny outside, then barters for food and lodging among the townspeople in exchange for tickets to the show. Here the story inexplicably crumbles. When it becomes clear that Mr. Morrison is, in fact, a flimflam con man, and he flees town, there is no consequence for the girls, no denouement and no resolutionthe duped pair is simply left by the side of the dusty road. The author tacks on an epilogue, but readers may still feel they've been left hanging. Ages 7-10. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Ten-year-old Bobbie Jo Hailey, who stutters, admires the smooth-talking stranger who comes to her small town, until she learns he's a flimflam man who has sold the town tickets to a fictitious traveling circus. Based on the actual 1950 event that spawned the Wetumka, Oklahoma, annual Sucker Day Festival, the narrative tells a rousing good tale of old-fashioned con artistry, illustrated with lighthearted drawings. 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
From Beard (The Pumpkin Man from Piney Creek, 1995), an easy-to-read tale based on a true incident that the citizens of Wetumka, Oklahoma--in a classic case of making lemons into lemonade--still celebrate with an annual ""Sucker Day."" When F. Barn Morrison steps out of his turquoise blue Chevy and announces that he's the advance man for Bohn's United Circus Shows, the whole town of Wetumka rushes to buy tickets--all but crotchety Ol' man Swank, who snorts that Morrison is only a flimflam man, a two-faced weasel. To Bobbi Jo Hailey, 10, and her friend/rival Clara Jean, Morrison is a tree marvel, offering Bobble Jo advice on how to lose her stutter, exchanging ""free"" tickets for meals and other amenities, wowing the ladies with his grand manners, and smoothly selling circus program ads. Ol' man Swank is right, though; Morrison has the grace to apologize to Bobble Jo before making his escape. The people of Wetumka make the best of it, deciding that if they can't have a circus, at least they can have a parade. Side plots--both girls belong to single-parent families, and Clara Jean's father is an alcoholic--weigh the story down but don't sink it; flashily dressed and positively glowing with trustworthiness, Morrison cuts a genial figure in Christelow's comfortably casual black-and-white drawings. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4. It all starts one scorchingly hot July day in 1950--the day that F. Bam Morrison arrives in the little town of Wetumka, Oklahoma. He says he's an advance man for Bohn's United Circus shows, and, enchanted by his patter and charm, people start lining up to buy tickets for the show that's surely just down the road a piece. But ol' man Swank says F. Bam's nothin' but a flimflam man and "all that fancy talkin' and hat-tippin' and hand-shakin' doesn't mean a dern fool thing." Nobody wants to believe that, of course, especially 10-year-old Bobbie Jo Hailey, who has her own personal reasons for wanting to believe that what Morrison says is true. Based on a real episode in Wetumka's history, Beard's story is full of nostalgic American fun and lively (fictional) characters. Bobbie Jo is especially appealing, and her gradually emerging friendship with mean Clara Jean Knox is believable and engaging. --Michael Cart