Comes a Wind - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 3-Brothers Clement and Clyde have spent their lives one-upping each other. Just before her birthday, their mother invites her grown sons to her ranch, requesting that, "Just once, I'd like to pass the day with you two boys and no squabblin'!" When a wind comes up as they sit on Mama's porch, the brothers can't resist telling tales about winds they've experienced: "You call that a wind?-Why, one day it was so windy, it ripped our clothes plumb off the line-My Mimi's dainties landed on that Texas Ranger statue in front of town hall. Now that was a wind!" When the real wind tops all the tall tales, blowing Mama and her birthday cake up onto the weathervane, Clement and Clyde cooperate to rescue her, pleasing the woman with their efforts and causing all three to agree, "Now that was a wind!" Curry's folk-art style acrylic paintings, featuring chickens whose feathers have been plucked by the gale, a tuba player who has had his instrument blown around his body, exaggerated bowlegs on the brothers, and electric-blue hair on Mama, make a perfect accompaniment to White's witty tall tale. In a subtle touch, Curry's illustrations remain within the frame except when that real wind starts a-blowin. Even if they've never experienced a determined prairie wind or sibling rivalry, readers will be blown away by this amusing book.
Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Clement and Clyde are two competitive brothers who can't be in the same space for a second without trying to top each other's tall tales. When their mother's birthday rolls around, they struggle to sit together on the porch sipping lemonade and being civil. But when a gust of wind comes up, they slip back into one-ups-manship. ``You call that a wind?'' Clyde grumbles. ``One day it was so windy it ripped our clothes plumb off the line.'' Not to be outdone, Clement tops him with a tale of a gust so strong it plucked trout out of the creek and plunked them right on his grill to cook. Their stories accelerate, punctuated with politeness whenever Mama steps out on the porch to refill their glasses. Like their tales, the wind picks up strength, flinging all the barnyard animals into the sky, and lifting blue-haired Mama high overhead, depositing her on the barn's roof. Finally the boys come to their senses and together, rescue their mom, this time partaking equally in the same tall tale. Curry's (The Bootmaker and the Elves, 1997, etc.) pictures of the lanky buckaroos are as exaggerated as the cowpokes' stories and his windstorms are wonderful scenarios of airborne tumbleweeds, tractors, and ten-gallon hats. Altogether quite a hoot. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.