Synopsis
Although she may be able to keep her house and her own children clean, Mother is no match for the dusty dervish that shows up one Saturday night.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1995-08-01 | | Illustrator: | Guy Porfirio | | Edition Description: | Illustrated |
| Size | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 11.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 15.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
In this sparkling original folktale, reminiscent of Slue Foot Sue and Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crocket, a girl who just can't get clean poses the biggest challenge a bar of soap and a determined mother ever faced. Full color.
Industry Reviews
K-Gr 3 One dusty summer, a large family gets a visit from the Raggly Scraggly No-Soap No-Scrub Girl. Mother likes clean children, but she's also polite, so she invites the stranger in. The girl proceeds to gobble up most of the food, gets blackberry cobbler dropped on her lap by her raven friend, dances up a swirling dust storm, and falls asleep. When Mother declares "`It's high time we scrubbed this raggly scraggly girl,'" she wakes up and runs in terror: "`I don't take to baths and baths don't take to me!...I'm all of me dirt, and none of me clean.'" But she slips on a piece of lye soap and flips into the tub, then pops out and ``...hightailed it out into the darkness.'' Mother never does get the tub clean after that. Lively language and an engaging, well-paced story make this original tall tale fun. The children, one of whom narrates, all take obvious delight in their guest's antics, and Mother's attempts to control her add to the humor. The watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations are infused with tans and browns, capturing the silliness of the story without overdoing it. The main character always appears to be in motion, with dirt swirling around her. The family's reactions are even funnier as they freeze in mid-bite when they first see the youngster or wildly chase her toward the tub. A fine choice for reading aloud. Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR
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