Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch by Anne Isaacs (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch by Anne Isaacs
Where can you find a tortoise the size of a horse, tomatoes you have to climb a ladder to pick, and a watermelon whose rind you can use for a hay shed? Texas, of course! So the widow Tulip Jones discovers in 1870 when she inherits thirty-five million dollars and a ranch, prompting her to leave England for the Lone Star State. Undeterred by temperatures so high that chickens lay hard-boiled eggs, Tulip soon cultivates her land into a self-sustaining enterprise where she and her ranch hands can peacefully sip tea after an afternoon ride on their tortoises. Word gets out that a wealthy widow has come to town, and soon every unmarried man in Texas—“and in 1870, every man in Texas was unmarried”—attempts to win her hand, much to her dismay. As she seeks counsel from her newly hired baker, Charlie, who always has a cookie and a kind word in a crisis, she not only outsmarts the suitors but finds true love. Cheeky illustrations meet clever prose in this rollicking, welcome addition to the American canon of tall tales. Hawkes’ acrylic and pencil drawings invite readers to pore over the detail as they capture Tulip’s journey from lush England to the Texas desert, where lizards walk on stilts to avoid the hot ground and even the snakes wear ten-gallon hats. Isaacs’ folksy sensibilities and gifts for hyperbole and wordplay emerge in her smart, winking text, where she metes out delightful absurdity alongside enough human emotion to create a memorable story. Good for those independent readers who want a laugh as well as those who want a little heart with their humor, this book will earn a prominent place on any library or classroom shelves—in Texas or otherwise.
