Author Lucy Nolan, a former journalist, is the author of the picture books
The Lizard Man of Crabtree County, an ABA Kids’ Pick of the Lists, and
Jack Quack as well as the Down Girl and Sit chapter books. She lives in Columbia, South Carolina.
Illustrator Laura J. Bryant studied drawing, painting, and print making at the Maryland Institute of Art, and is the illustrator of Where Fish Go in Winter: And Other Great Mysteries. She lives in the Shenandoah Mountains of West Virginia.
PreSchool-Grade 2-The town of Buttermilk Hollow is in a bad way. The young folks are leaving, and the local dairy farms face being overrun by a toothpick company that wants to build a factory. Farmer Blue declares that what the town needs is a fairy godmother. Soon thereafter, strange and magical things begin to happen: Little Annie Colby loses her tooth and awakens to a tub of frozen yogurt under her pillow; Jenny Tilsit wishes for a new gown for the Dairymen's Ball and one made of Swiss cheese appears. Farmers begin to take down their "For Sale" signs, the young decide to stay put, and the mayor is beside himself. How will he get rich if he can't sell his land? He sends the sheriff to investigate, leading readers on a funny expedition to solve the dairy-products-everywhere mystery. The fairy turns out to be Farmer Blue's Jersey cow wearing a pink tutu and riding a bicycle. Readers will delight in the frolicsome humor of cheese turning up in the strangest places. The funny, spirited illustrations, well executed in watercolors, will make children chuckle, especially the one of the farmer talking to his attentive brown cow, Pixie. Large enough for reading aloud, and well suited to doing so.
Leslie Barban, Richland County Public Library, Columbia, SC
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