Overview
Bounding with oversize visual and verbal humor, here is the previously untold story of Paul Bunyan’s “little” sister, who was as tall as a pine tree, as strong as a dozen moose, and could run so fast that she once ran all the way back to yesterday. As she heads to the North Woods in search of freedom and adventure, Paula uses her brains and brawn to surmount every challenge that comes her way, proving to ferocious animals that she’s their friend and becoming protector of a wild wonderland.
Antic-filled artwork by Kevin O’Malley accompanies Phyllis Root’s text, a great read-aloud with a welcome eco-friendly twist at the end.
Synopsis
Bounding with oversize visual and verbal humor, here is the previously untold story of Paul Bunyan’s “little” sister, who was as tall as a pine tree, as strong as a dozen moose, and could run so fast that she once ran all the way back to yesterday. As she heads to the North Woods in search of freedom and adventure, Paula uses her brains and brawn to surmount every challenge that comes her way, proving to ferocious animals that she’s their friend and becoming protector of a wild wonderland.
Antic-filled artwork by Kevin O’Malley accompanies Phyllis Root’s text, a great read-aloud with a welcome eco-friendly twist at the end.
The New York Times - Jerry Griswold
…the book presents such a happy pairing of writer and artist that we can now wish for stories about the sisters of John Henry, Mike Fink and Johnny Appleseed.
Editorials
Jerry Griswold
…the book presents such a happy pairing of writer and artist that we can now wish for stories about the sisters of John Henry, Mike Fink and Johnny Appleseed.—The New York Times
School Library Journal
Gr 2-5
This original tall tale introduces readers to Paul Bunyan's little sister, "tall as a pine tree and strong as a dozen moose," who leaves for the North Woods, a wilderness big enough to contain her and her window-shattering singing voice. There she tames a black bear "seven feet tall," teaches a pair of wolves to sing along with her, and devises an ingenious plan to stop lumberjacks from logging all the trees. Consistent with the genre, both the text and illustrations abound with exaggerated humor. Paula's parents send her off with a little snack of "two hundred and fifty-three loaves of bread, over a dozen wheels of cheese, several bushels of apples, twenty gallons of cider, and a barrel each of salt and pepper" to tide her over. O'Malley's white-framed, woodcutlike pictures, heavily outlined with intricate line shading, appear throughout this appropriately tall book. Sweeping panoramic views, Paula's thunderous voice depicted in large speech bubbles, bear-carrying mosquitoes, comical animal expressions, and energetic black-and-white drawings add to the fun. The timely environmental message is an added plus. Pair the escapades of this larger-than-life heroine with those of Steven Kellogg's Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett (HarperCollins, 1995) for a fun-filled read-aloud session.-Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT