Lorraine

by Ketch Secor, Higgins Bond (Illustrator)

Overview

Old Crow Medicine Show founder and Grammy award-winning musician Ketch Secor teams up with Ashley Bryan Award-winning illustrator Higgins Bond to create this sweeping, epic Americana story about the power of music and family.

"Who needs a whistle or some shiny thing

when you've got a voice and a song that can sing!"

Lorraine and her Pa Paw spend their days celebrating life with the music of the Tennessee hills. With Pa Paw's harmonica and Lorraine's pennywhistle, the pair can face just about anything. But when a fearsome storm rolls in and their instruments are nowhere to be found, can Lorraine find the music inside herself to get them through?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728250151
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	08/10/2021
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,032,705
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	690L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Ketch Secor is the founder of the band Old Crow Medicine Show. He won a Grammy for his involvement in the concert film, “Big Easy Express.” Old Crow Medicine Show has sold over 700,000 albums. Ketch lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Learn more at crowmedicine.com.

Higgins Bond received the 2009 Ashley Bryan Award for outstanding contribution to children’s literature. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Visit her at higginsbond.com.

Editorial Reviews

09/10/2018
Musician Secor deftly mines his songwriting talent in this paean to music and family bonds. Lorraine, an African-American girl, joyfully accompanies her harmonica-playing grandfather, Pa Paw, on her penny whistle, “And even when storms hit those Tennessee hills,/ the music they played/ made their worries stand still.” She is tickled when a crow touches down and dances to their tune—and perplexed when both instruments and other shiny objects disappear just before a fierce electrical storm strikes. Pa Paw assuages Lorraine’s fears of weathering the storm without her spirits-lifting whistle, and the two raise their voices in soothing song. Bond (the A Place For series) captures the narrative’s melody and changeable moods in luminous paintings featuring precisely rendered feathers, blades of grass, and emotive facial expressions. Adding a playful note of mystery to the story, whose text incorporates various fonts and type colors, the collaborators refrain from identifying the instrument thief, but keen-eyed kids will catch on. Ages 4–8. Agent: Valerie Borchardt, Georges Borchardt Inc. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"This not-to-be-missed story appeals to the ear as much as it does to the eye as Lorraine shows readers that music can make any situation more enjoyable." — Kirkus Reviews

"Musician Secor deftly mines his songwriting talent in this paean to music and family bonds... Bond captures the narrative’s melody and changeable moods in luminous paintings featuring precisely rendered feathers, blades of grass, and emotive facial expressions." — Publishers Weekly

"Ketch Secor is one of my favorite writers. Whether it's songs, books, essays, radio scripts or letters to home, Ketch has a way of making the world spin a little smoother when he starts putting words together. He words never fail to enlighten and they always have the power to make me smile." — Marty Stuart

"[A] bouncy tribute to Southern folkways and intergenerational relationships." — School Library Journal

"This musical, folkloric story is a delightful read-aloud." — Booklist

From the Publisher

10/01/2018
K-Gr 3—Roots musician Secor uses his experience with rhythm and rhyme to tell this story of an African American girl and her grandfather in rural Tennessee. Set sometime in the indeterminate past, the story follows the pair as they spend time making music, he on a harmonica and she with a penny whistle. "Even when storms hit those Tennessee hills, the music they played made their worries stand still." When shiny things around the house begin to go missing, they are curious; and one night, during a storm, they discover that their beloved instruments have disappeared, too. How will they get through the storm without the distraction of making music? By singing, of course. After the storm, a fallen tree exposes all the missing items, stolen and then hidden by a crow. Bond's realistic paintings skillfully evoke Lorraine's spirit and the loving relationship she shares with her Pa Paw. VERDICT This bouncy tribute to Southern folkways and intergenerational relationships is an additional purchase.—Lisa Lehmuller, Paul Cuffee Maritime Charter School, Providence

School Library Journal

★ 2018-08-01

This rhyming, do-si-do-inducing story relates how Lorraine and her grandfather weather a Tennessee storm with music while uncovering a mystery plaguing their farm.

Fearless Lorraine, who has bright brown eyes and a head full of curly ringlets, loves to play her pennywhistle with her overalls-wearing, harmonica-playing, "pitchforkin' Pa Paw." (Emphasizing just how much the two love to make music together, Bond superimposes the sheet music of songs onto the illustrations in which Pa Paw and Lorraine play or sing.) For no apparent reason, shiny objects begin to disappear from around the farm: the breakfast bell, Pa Paw's keys to the barn gate, a tin scoop, and even both their instruments. When a violent electrical storm and what appears to be a tornado tear through the farm, Lorraine feels afraid, but she and Pa Paw don't even have their instruments for comfort. They do have their voices, though. Serendipitously, the freshly fallen "Chinkypin tree" reveals both the whereabouts of the shiny objects and the thief. Bond's photorealistic acrylic illustrations bring the expansive landscapes and barnscapes to life while also emphasizing the close intergenerational relationship between the African-American duo.

This not-to-be-missed story appeals to the ear as much as it does to the eye as Lorraine shows readers that music can make any situation more enjoyable. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews