How the Ladies Stopped the Wind

July 23, 2007
The team that made stars of a group of Icelandic ladies in The Problem with Chickens
returns for another winning round. It hardly matters what they’re up to—Gunnella’s flat, deadpan oil portraits of the ladies, their polka-dot aprons and their hapless chickens are inherently funny, and every page contains another visual poke in the ribs. This time, the wind troubles them, as the thick-legged ladies are being blown sideways by brisk gusts, and they have to hold onto fence posts so they don’t fly away. The ladies decide to plant trees to break the force of the gale, then discover that the sheep find young trees very appetizing (the distraught ladies line up like chess pieces and sing “Please, please don’t eat the trees!” to a herd of perplexed sheep). Next, a trio of moon-faced ladies exhorts an earnest cow, “Please herd the sheep away from the trees. Please lead them to the grass.” Their plan succeeds in the villages but fails out in the country, where the sheep just can’t be prevented from eating the trees. As it turns out, though, that’s just as well: “In the Icelandic countryside,” McMillan concludes, “you can still see forever.” Readers will be grateful that McMillan and Gunnella have resisted the urge to scout around for new subject matter; the ladies and their animal companions possess enough charm to fill several more books. Ages 4-8.

December 1, 2007
K-Gr 3-It is very windy in Iceland, and going for a walk can be challenging. So what did the ladies of one village decide? Why, that they would plant trees, in the village and in the countryside, to act as a windbreak. The chickens help, by providing an abundance of fertilizer. But once the sheep discover how tasty the little trees are, they eat them. The ladies replant, and build a fence around the village. The chickens fertilize, the sheep stay out with the cows, and all is welluntil the sheep once more discover the tasty trees outside the fence. But thanks to the ladies (and to the chickens!), no matter how barren the fields may be, there are many beautiful trees in each village in Iceland. The illustrations are done in a faux-naif folk-art style in intensely colorful oils, perfect for depicting a village set among beautiful scenic hills near the ocean, and the cover, showing a mother pushing a baby carriage and three chickens being blown clear off the ground by wind, will invite any young reader to open the book and see what on earth is happening. Reminiscent of Carol Greene's The Old Ladies Who Liked Cats (HarperCollins, 1991; o.p.), this book will be useful not only for storytimes, but also in classroom units on ecology.Marian Drabkin, Richmond Public Library, CA

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2007
McMillans second tale about the clever Icelandic women and their livestock is as charming as his first, The Problem with Chickens (2005). The extreme wind on Iceland makes going for a walk very difficult. The solution? The women plant trees. Worried that the sheep will eat the young plants, the ladies and their daughters sing to the sheep: Please, please, dont eat the trees. The chickens provide fertilizer, the cows herd the sheep to the pasture, and the ladies build a fence around the village. As the trees grow up, so do the womens daughters, who have children of their own. The folk-art pictures, thickly painted in rich colors, match the lively folktale tone; the peasant women with round faces, stubby legs, patterned aprons, and colorful babushkas are as comforting as they are clever.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)