MY MOUNTAIN SONG
by Shutta Crum & illustrated by Ted Rand
Pleasant but bland watercolors don’t provide enough nuance for this double-themed plot. Brenda Gail is spending the summer on her grandparents’ mountain farm. Beloved Gran Pap sings a tune one morning, prompting a conversation about how everyone who’s born in the mountains has their own “mountain song” made up of their favorite memories like a quilt. Brenda Gail wants to work on figuring out her own mountain song, but frustration at cousin Melvin makes her throw rocks at him—accidentally hitting and injuring Big Ma’s favorite egg-laying hen. The hen recovers, but Brenda Gail’s guilt and punishment overshadow the mountain song idea and turn the story moralistic. Text length and complexity, especially about the abstract and intriguing mountain song, are out of proportion with the pictures, which don’t merit more than a quick look. (Picture book. 4-6)