The Passing of a Bold Ruler

This delightful children's picture book is based on an incident that happened in the author's childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky. It is a heart-warming story of three generations of a caring family expressed in George Ella Lyon's magical way with words. The words of a song are woven through the text, and that song is reproduced, with the music, on the last page of the book. Milnes, Gerald. Granny Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. 48 pages. Hardback in dust jacket, illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. $14.95. This book and a cassette tape: $18.95. The illustrations, in the spirit of an old edition of Mother Goose, are quite appro- Ïriate for these old ditties from the Appalachians. Gerald Milnes grew up in New ersey, but in 1975, he and his young wife bought land in Braxton County, West Virginia, and began subsistence farming. Since that time Milnes has harvested a cornucopia of old tunes from area traditional musicians. Altogether, this is one of the most charming books—and cassettes—ever to illuminate regional folklore. Stuart, Jesse. Split Cherry Tree. Ashland, Kentucky: The Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1990. 58 pages. Trade paperback. $3.00. The publication of this book marks a new departure for the Jesse Stuart Foundation . It is the first time that they have published a manuscript not previously published in book form. This short story was the only one of Stuart's to be made into a movie during his lifetime. The book reproduction includes study questions for school children as well as the text of the story. The Passing of a Bold Ruler He was led to the paddock in a cold wind and looked past the slat fence through steam rising from a slurry of straw and dung, to golden rod at the edge of a field. His groom of nineteen years stood stroking the muscular neck, a hand resting on lean withers as a fatal dose of barbiturate was passed through red hair into a vein. He fell away and was framed in air by hands, stilled by death, hands that knew him as a yearling, and brushed away race drawn lather. In the stillness came a whisper and in cresendo a home stretch roar, the groom slowly began to applaud. —Ray Hackett 78 ...