PAULA BUNYAN

Paula Bunyan, who could outwrestle her more famous brother Paul “three times out of six,” gets tired of hauling ferries across the river on her shoulders and sets out for more open spaces where she can sing without breaking china and walk without running out of forest. She teaches the wolves to sing in three-part harmony (although in the folksy illustrations, they are actually singing a round of “Row Row Row Your Boat”) and tames a bear by sharing her meal with him. She later rescues said bear from ravening mosquitoes, but when she decides to drive a passel of lumberjacks away, she lures the bloodsuckers to the loggers’ camp, from which the chicken-sized insects make them “[take] off running like it was payday.” Paula’s eco-consciousness feels forced within the tall-tale context, particularly given Root’s facility with the form. O’Malley’s images are appropriately exaggerated, with saturated 19th-century colors and human expressions on wolves and bear. The text is printed on cream-toned stock, often with black-and-white vignettes contributing to the old-timey look. (Picture book. 5-8)