Fat Chance, Claude! - Hardcover

Nixon, Joan Lowery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670814598 ISBN 13: 9780670814596

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 1987

Synopsis

A zany Texas couple, Shirley and Claude, grow up and meet out in the gold mining hills of Colorado.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-3 Sassy Shirley meets stocky Claude in this prequel to Beats Me, Claude (Viking, 1986) and If You Say So, Claude (Warne, 1980). Here the feisty gal vies with her fellow pioneer for a gold claim, but settles for marriage. Transitional readers will relish the exaggerated humor of the ``Colorado or Bust'' shenanigans, and they will share the joy of the couple's first hug. (From the sequels, we know that Shirley remains a spirited, liberated female after the wedding.) Nixon blends Western drawlin' with contemporary tale spinning, giving Shirley a new trademark response: ``Fat chance, Claude.'' Pearson's colorful yet sketchy cartoons again illustrate. They match the folksy spirit of the text, although characters lack detailed facial expressions. This new yarn will entertain followers of the frontier pair, and it should tantalize them to try the more complex tall tales of Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan. Charlene Strickland, Los Angeles County Public Library, Valencia, Calif.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

That wacky Texas couple, Shirley and Claude, establishes that they are kindred spirits in this rollicking prequel to If You Say So, Claude and Beats Me, Claude. In the frontier town of Hideyhole, feisty Shirley resists her parents' attempts to marry her offespecially since the only bachelor left is dull Elmer Twaddle. She'd rather go to Colorado to look for gold. On the trail she meets Claude, whose mama's marriage to a widower gives him a sudden hankering for prospecting, too (if he'd stuck around, he'd have to support his new stepfather's six young sons). Shirley and Claude help each other through thick and thinuntil they both spot gold on the same site. In crisp, sure language laced with delightfully outrageous exaggeration, Nixon has spun a rib-tickling yarn with an underlying message about the value of friendship. Pearson's spirited illustrations double the hilarity and silly good fun: the picture of Claude proposing is worth a pan of gold. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0670814598
• ISBN 13: 9780670814596
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Pearson Tracey Campbell