AVALANCHE ANNIE

The tale’s tall, even if its hero isn’t, in this rhymed account of a diminutive trail guide’s awesome exploit. Leading a group of snowshoe racers up the slopes of northern Michisota’s Mount Himalachia, four-foot-three-inch Annie Halfpint meets a wild avalanche coming down. Her wide Inuit face lit with glee, she snatches a rope and lassoes the beast, riding it safely down into Yoohoo Valley to the amazement of all. Wheeler tells the tale in sprightly verse—“Her voice booms soft as thunder. / Her hair grows thick as ink. / Her skin feels smooth as gravel. / Her mukluks hold their stink”—aptly reflected in Cyrus’s comic scenes of dismayed hikers, rolling down the hill in a whirl of colorful parkas, amid giant curds of snow. Fans of Sally Ann Crockett, Angelica Longrider (“Swamp Angel”), and other female members of the tall-tale pantheon will definitely be looking up to Annie. (Picture book. 7-9)