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Synopsis
"Nearly all the sheep ranchers in Blue Gum Valley rode horses or drove jeeps to check on their sheep. But Joshua Summerhayes liked to run...with Yellow Dog trailing behind him." So it's no surprise when Joshua decides to enter a race from Melbourne to Sydney. People laugh when old Joshua shows up in his overalls and gumboots, calmly nibbling a slice of pumpkin for energy. But then he pulls into the lead, and folks are forced to sit up and take notice .. Inspired by a true event (and just in time for fall's pumpkin harvest!) a talented team introduces a humble and generous hero who knows that winning isn't always the reason to run a race. Marsha Diane Arnold made "an impressive debut" (School Library Journal) with the multi-award-winning Heart of a Tiger (Dial). Brad Sneed most recently illustrated Smoky Mountain Rose (Dial), an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists that Publishers Weekly said will "make readers 'happy as a pig in a peanut patch.' " Marsha Diane Arnold lives in Sebastopol, California. Brad Sneed lives in Prairie Village, Kansas.
Kirkus Reviews
Noting her story's origins in the true tale of a 61-year-old Australian farmer who beat much younger runners in a 542-mile race from Sydney to Melbourne in 1983, Arnold (The Chicken Salad Club, p. 808, etc.) pens a folksy, aw-shucks piece. Joshua Summerhayes, unlike other ranchers, relies on his feet instead of a vehicle to check on his flocks. He attributes his endurance to the home-grown pumpkins he consumes. When a flier about a $10,000 racing prize blows across his porch, Joshua borrows a friend's jeep and loads it up with pumpkins, his dog, and Aunt Millie, and heads for the starting line. At first onlookers laugh at Joshua's overalls and boots, but as he gradually overtakes all the other runners, their laughs turn to cheers. Sneed's drawings are done in a midwestern vernacular style, with the undulating rhythm of Thomas Hart Benton. They place this legend of a long-distance, Down Under runner somewhere between a tall tale and a picture-perfect front-porch anecdote. (Picture book. 4-8)