When Aunt Lucy Rode a Mule & Other Stories - Hardcover

Porte, Barbara Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0531068161 ISBN 13: 9780531068168

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1994

Synopsis

When two sisters go to see their aunt, she tells them stories about her adventures as a young girl visiting her grandparents in the mountains

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-3-Stella and her sister visit their Aunt Lucy and ask her to tell them a story. Protesting that she doesn't recall any, she proceeds to tell them about visiting her grandparents in the mountains when she was little. Beginning with her first ride on a mule, Lucy intertwines a series of adventures involving herself, her grandparents, and her Aunt Cissy, covering everything from going skinny-dipping to getting stung by swarms of bees to helping a woman get rid of a snake in her car. The girls return home with a fresh sense of the unique personalities of their delightful relatives. For contemporary kids whose only concept of "vacation" is a trip to Disneyworld or to some other prepackaged funhouse, Porte's work offers a sense of old-fashioned good times and down-home humor. Chambliss's watercolors, interspersed throughout the lengthy narrative, provide cozy details and add comic touches to Lucy's yarns. Unfortunately, her stories become so intertwined that, like Stella, readers may have difficulty keeping straight the characters and their relationships. Nevertheless, as with When Grandma Almost Fell Off the Mountain and Other Stories (Orchard, 1993), this snippet of family folklore is sure to inspire youngsters to find out some of their own history and could serve as a jumping-off place for storytelling and creative writing.
Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, Wheeler School, Providence, RI
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Zelda and Stella, the girls regaled with their grandmother's funny recollections of a family trip (When Grandma Almost Fell off the Mountain, not reviewed) now visit Aunt Lucy, whose initial disclaimer (``I don't recall any stories'') proves to be as comically at odds with her subsequent narrative as her mother's was. Pausing only to urge more cake on her enthralled guests, Aunt Lucy describes visiting her grandparents, where the recounted events verge intriguingly on tall tale (Did Grandpa really free a crow from a determined turtle?) and many of the doings are instigated by her own irrepressible aunt, Cissie. The girls' amazed queries propel the narrative; and Porte gives her own audience some painless practice in keeping generations straight. By slipping in a question of fact near the end (Aunt Lucy recalls that her Aunt Cissie and her sister, now Zelda and Stella's grandma, each believed as an adult that the other was stung as a child by bees attracted by her flowered hat), Porte hints slyly that such tales may change with time. Again, Chambliss adds even more gusto to the story with cheerful watercolors on every page. Fast, funny, and pungent. (Young reader/Picture book. 6-10) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0531068161
• ISBN 13: 9780531068168
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Illustrator: Chambliss Maxie