Overview
"If Roy Can't Fix It,
Nobody Can"
Down in Eatonville, Florida, there's a man who can clean spark plugs just by looking at them hard, and who can grease an axle faster than you can say "carburetor." Folks round those parts claim Roy Tyle might just be the best mechanic in the world. But Roy, you know, he never can find an automobile made to suit him. He figures, if a car was built right, there wouldn't be so many collisions out on the road. And so when Roy -- that wonder-making man -- says he's going to make an accident-proof car, there's no telling what he'll cook up behind his double-locked doors....
Based on a tall tale collected by legendary African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston, Mary E. Lyons's souped-up story is perfectly complemented by Terry Widener's bold, dramatic illustrations.
Synopsis
"If Roy Can't Fix It,
Nobody Can"
Down in Eatonville, Florida, there's a man who can clean spark plugs just by looking at them hard, and who can grease an axle faster than you can say "carburetor." Folks round those parts claim Roy Tyle might just be the best mechanic in the world. But Roy, you know, he never can find an automobile made to suit him. He figures, if a car was built right, there wouldn't be so many collisions out on the road. And so when Roy — that wonder-making man — says he's going to make an accident-proof car, there's no telling what he'll cook up behind his double-locked doors....
Based on a tall tale collected by legendary African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston, Mary E. Lyons's souped-up story is perfectly complemented by Terry Widener's bold, dramatic illustrations.
Publishers Weekly
Lyons (Feed the Children First) and Widener (Girl Wonder) turbocharge a folktale originally collected by Zora Neale Hurston as part of the 1930s Federal Writers' Project (as stated in an author's note). Adding a heavy dose of southern dialect, Lyons recounts the tale of a mechanic in Eatonville, Fl., with brisk pacing and plenty of colloquialisms. "People from those parts think Roy Tyle is the best mechanic in the state.... Why, he can grease an axle faster than you can say `carburetor,' and he can clean spark plugs just by looking at them hard." When Roy produces-in only an hour-an "accident-proof car," a gambling man bets against him, trying to instigate fender-benders involving Roy's "stabilated, lubricated, banjo-axled, wing-fendered, low-compression, noncollision car." Widener's acrylics take up the playful exaggeration of the text, depicting scenes of the jet-black, 1930s-styled wonder auto rising up and over (or sliding, low-slung, underneath) the challengers' vehicles. The wide-eyed faces and exaggerated features of the townsfolk add a comic edge and emphasize the hyperbolic tone. After selling a flying car to God, Roy continues puttering in his workshop, leaving readers to wonder what he's up to next. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Lyons (Feed the Children First) and Widener (Girl Wonder) turbocharge a folktale originally collected by Zora Neale Hurston as part of the 1930s Federal Writers' Project (as stated in an author's note). Adding a heavy dose of southern dialect, Lyons recounts the tale of a mechanic in Eatonville, Fl., with brisk pacing and plenty of colloquialisms. "People from those parts think Roy Tyle is the best mechanic in the state.... Why, he can grease an axle faster than you can say `carburetor,' and he can clean spark plugs just by looking at them hard." When Roy produces-in only an hour-an "accident-proof car," a gambling man bets against him, trying to instigate fender-benders involving Roy's "stabilated, lubricated, banjo-axled, wing-fendered, low-compression, noncollision car." Widener's acrylics take up the playful exaggeration of the text, depicting scenes of the jet-black, 1930s-styled wonder auto rising up and over (or sliding, low-slung, underneath) the challengers' vehicles. The wide-eyed faces and exaggerated features of the townsfolk add a comic edge and emphasize the hyperbolic tone. After selling a flying car to God, Roy continues puttering in his workshop, leaving readers to wonder what he's up to next. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
"Roy Tyle runs the garage down near Eatonville, Florida," hometown of Zora Neale Hurston and source of much of the folklore she gathered for books like Palmetto Country. Mary Lyons, who has also written a biography of Hurston called Sorrow's Kitchen, "souped-up" Hurston's two-paragraph story about Roy to give readers a "turbocharged, floating-ride, stabilated, lubricated, banjo-axled, wing-fendered, low-compression, noncollision car." The story is written as if it were being told by a favorite uncle to an admiring audience, so it is a perfect read-aloud: "Why, (Roy) can grease an axle faster than you can say 'carburetor' and he can clean spark plugs just by looking at them hard." And right there filling almost half a page is that spark plug. Terry Widener's large, bold illustrations have an art-deco style that recalls the period of Hurston's actual writing. The story is perfect to launch a discussion of tall tales and using imagination to build a story that leaves the reader wanting to know more. "T'aint no telling what (Roy'll) try next." 2005, Simon & Schuster, Ages 4 to 8.—Karen Leggett