PROFESSOR FERGUS FAHRENHEIT AND HIS WONDERFUL WEATHER MACHINE

Dry Gulch is whistling for rain, but heaven isn't listening. A town meeting called to address the crisis is flummoxed until Fergus Fahrenheit walks through the door. Rain is his mÇtier, and, as an employee of the Wonder-Worker Weather Co., he is happy to take their order. Challenged by the skeptical mayor, Fergus demonstrates his gift, first with a gentle rain, then a thundershower, then a certified deluge. The town strikes a deal with the rainmaker then and there, signing on the bottom line. Weller's illustrations soup things up with their Ralph Steadman splatterings, faces modeled after Easter Island statuary, and exuberant color (sometimes too exuberant—the text depicts Fergus as black from head to toe, but Weller can't resist a cuff of turquoise). How this story squares with the rainmaking fakeries of the early 1900s—despite the many wonderful concurrences—is left to the author's note. But, as a quest for surcease from life's travails, this story is a sweet and easy ride. (Picture book. 4- 8)