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Sidney Fleischman (1920 to 2010) was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved with his family when he was two years old to San Diego, California. He had loved magic tricks ever since he was a young boy and maintained that interest all his life. He was a journalist and author of books for adults. In 1962, he drew on his fondness for magic tricks to write Mr. Mysterious and Company, his first of many successful novels for children (see my review). His novels are known for their quirky characters, light-hearted humor, interesting plots and colorful villains, and an emphasis on the importance of families. Fleischman won the 1987 Newbery Medal at age 67, for his book, The Whipping Boy.
Among his many books, Fleischman wrote quite a few that were shorter, designed for younger audiences in upper elementary to early middle school. His very funny McBroom series are oriented more towards upper elementary school. The two books reviewed here, McBroom the Rainmaker and McBroom’s Ear, are two of this hilarious tall-tale series. By “tall-tale” I mean things that are so odd and fantastic that no one would ever believe them, so that no one would ever be taken in and fooled. Davy Crockett was good at telling tall tales, as was Abraham Lincoln.
Josh McBroom and his wife and their eleven children live on a one-acre farm, which would seem to be too small to support even one person, much less a family of two adults and eleven children. However, the farm is so fertile that they can grow several crops per day and raise fifty-pound watermelons and tomatoes! The McBroom family is a happy family who work together well. The ten different books in the series detail various episodes in their lives, all with fantastical elements that are soberly related by Josh, who says, in many colorful ways, that he would never tell an untruth!
In McBroom’s Ear, the family faces a plague of grasshoppers, who will only come attack the farm when the temperature is high enough. McBroom’s description of the heat of the day is very funny. The way the McBroom family battle the grasshoppers is original and fits in perfectly with a tall-tale theme. By the way, the “ear” in the title does not refer to a human ear!
McBroom the Rainmaker describes how the McBroom family fought a great drought, three-pound mosquitoes, and their nasty neighbor Heck Jones to recover the fertility of their one-acre farm. Just the way Fleischman describes how hot and dry it got makes the whole story worth reading! The McBroom books make great family read-alouds, since the language used is so creative and the story is extremely humorous.
Kurt Werth (1896 to 1983) was born in Germany and mainly illustrated American children's books. He and his wife Margaret worked in Germany until 1939, when they escaped the Nazis and emigrated to the United States because Margaret was Jewish. He illustrated half of the ten McBroom books and is probably best remembered for that work.