Runnery Granary

From Publishers Weekly Newbery Honor author Farmer (The Ear, the Eye and the Arm) here spins a medieval setting and a folktale-like aura into a winsome yarn. For years, the Runnerys' business has run like clockwork: Mrs. Runnery stores the farmers' grain in her stone granary, and Mr. Runnery's mill grinds it into flour. The family is puzzled when grain begins disappearing from the granary, and grows utterly perplexed when neither spiders nor cats can chase the mysterious intruders away. Toasting her toes by the fire, all-knowing Granny pinpoints the troublemakers as gnomes and offers a solution in frolicsome rhyme: "Get hiccups and honey and hair./ Get money and marbles and meat./ Go out to the woods in the moonlight./ And glue the whole mess to a sheet." Echoing the story's loose period setting and timeless good humor, Smith's (Matthew's Dragon) illustrations dovetail neatly with Farmer's text as both demonstrate how Granny's "gnome paper" captures the culprits. Rendered in watercolors and pencils, the full-page art portrays the Runnerys as a most ingratiating clan. And Smith's depiction of the greedy gnomes is just right: they're a wee bit scary, but not too much. Ages 5-up. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal PreSchool-Grade 2?Grain is being stolen from Mrs. Runnery's granary. Neither spiders nor cats can end the pillage, for they are thwarted by the mysterious thieves. Granny, in her wisdom, says "gnome paper" is needed. Finally, the culprits are captured and set sailing down the river. When the sticky paper dissolves, the gnomes just march off to find another granary, but the Runnerys are never bothered again. Framed, carefully detailed pages feature a charming bucolic setting with thatched-roof cottages and characters in peasant dress. Boxes with the look of parchment paper hold the text. A charming tale that story-hour crowds are sure to eat up.?Kathy East, Wood County District Public Library, OHCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.