LORRAINE

This rhyming, do-si-do–inducing story relates how Lorraine and her grandfather weather a Tennessee storm with music while uncovering a mystery plaguing their farm.

Fearless Lorraine, who has bright brown eyes and a head full of curly ringlets, loves to play her pennywhistle with her overalls-wearing, harmonica-playing, “pitchforkin’ Pa Paw.” (Emphasizing just how much the two love to make music together, Bond superimposes the sheet music of songs onto the illustrations in which Pa Paw and Lorraine play or sing.) For no apparent reason, shiny objects begin to disappear from around the farm: the breakfast bell, Pa Paw’s keys to the barn gate, a tin scoop, and even both their instruments. When a violent electrical storm and what appears to be a tornado tear through the farm, Lorraine feels afraid, but she and Pa Paw don’t even have their instruments for comfort. They do have their voices, though. Serendipitously, the freshly fallen “Chinkypin tree” reveals both the whereabouts of the shiny objects and the thief. Bond’s photorealistic acrylic illustrations bring the expansive landscapes and barnscapes to life while also emphasizing the close intergenerational relationship between the African-American duo.

This not-to-be-missed story appeals to the ear as much as it does to the eye as Lorraine shows readers that music can make any situation more enjoyable.