Notes of humor, warmth and rustic detail vie for attention in his bright-blue, big-sky scenes. Throughout, Nelson's oil, watercolor and pencil compositions endow Rose's larger-than-life feats with verve. Even for the tall tale genre, there is too much going on, and a message at the end, about the thunder in Rose's heart and what happens when she calls forth the music that resides there, makes for a rambling denouement. Unfortunately, her packed plot slows the rhythms of her fun writing style.

lassoed those hot-tempered hooligans up good and tight'). Nolen's kicky regional dialect is the high point right outside of Caldwell, that irascible, full-of-outrage-and-ire outlaw Jesse Baines and his gang of desperadoes tried to rustle that herd away from Rose. Rose demonstrates extraordinary talents even as a newborn: 'She took hold of that lightning, rolled it into a ball, and set it above her shoulder, while the thunder echoed out over the other.' She turns out to have an aptitude for bending wire and scrap metal among other developments in this episodic narrative, Rose constructs a thunderbolt from scrap iron and invents barbed wire.

Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young ReadersĬoming into the world one stormy night, Thunder Rose, heroine of this original tall tale, is the first child 'born free and easy' to her African-American parents, who (an author's note implies) have transplanted themselves from slavery in the South to settle the frontiers of the Old West. to stand up for what they believed.'' Together, author and artist impart a reassuring message for all children about the importance of appreciating what they look like as part of who they are.

Each evening, Keyana's mother lovingly combs out her tangles before bed and, when it hurts, Mama assures her that she is very lucky to have such hair ''because it's beautiful and you can wear it in any style you choose.'' Lewis's (Creativity Staying Cool) realistic watercolors take fanciful flight as parent and child describe what can be done with the girl's locks: braids at the top of Keyana's head become hoed rows of vegetables in a field behind her as Mama explains that she can ''plant rows of braids along your scalp, the way we plant seeds in our garden'' and, pictured against the night sky, the child's Afro-styled hair metamorphoses into an image of the earth as she notes that, when she lets it ''go any which-way it pleases,'' her hair surrounds her head ''like a globe.'' But the style also has historical importance, for, as her teacher tells her, ''wearing an Afro was a way. In Tarpley's gracefully told story, a young African American heroine celebrates her lovely head of hair as part of her heritage.

Our Gracie Aunt by Jacqueline Woodson