Mirandy and Brother Wind

To win first prize in the Junior Cakewalk, Mirandy tries to capture the wind for her partner.

Illus. in full color."Mirandy is sure she'll win the cake walk if she can catch Brother Wind for her partner, but he eludes all the tricks her friends advise. This gets a high score for plot, pace, and characterization. Mirandy sparkles with energy and determination. Multi-hued watercolors fill the pages with patterned ferment. A treat to pass on to new generations."—(starred) Bulletin, Center for Children's Books. Cassette running time: 20 min.  

Publishers Weekly

As a prefatory note explains, this picture book was inspired by a photo of the author's grandparents winning a cakewalk``a dance rooted in Afro-American culture''and her grandfather's boast that, in her dancing, his wife had captured the wind. In the book, Mirandy determines to catch Brother Wind and have him for her partner in the upcoming junior cakewalk. She tries a number of tactics springing from folk wisdom, and finally succeeds in trapping her prey in the barn. At the contest, Mirandy chooses to dance with her friend Ezelbut, with Brother Wind to do her bidding, the two friends win the cakewalk in style. Told in spirited dialect and rendered in lavish, sweeping watercolors, this provides an intriguing look at a time gone by. As a story, however, it proves somewhat disappointing. After the colorful description of cakewalking in the author's note and the anticipation created through Mirandy's own eagerness, the brief and rather static scenes portraying the dance itself are a letdown. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)

Award winning author Patricia McKissack comes from a family of skilled storytellers, who taught her to listen and observe and who encouraged her life-long love affair with words.  The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural was a 1993 Newbery Honor Book.  Pat also received the Coretta Scott King Award in 1993 for The Dark Thirty.  Pat wishes she could have talked to her hero, Frederick Douglass, about his rise from slavery, his daring escape, and freedom — at last!  If she was not an author, Pat would like to be an interior designer or an architect so she could tell stories through design.

Pat frequently collaborates on books with her husband, Fredrick.  They have three sons and live in St. Louis, Missouri.