Otis and the Tornado

June 27, 2011
Otis, a diminutive and unusually sensitive tractor, befriended a lonesome calf in his eponymous 2009 debut. In this earnest sequel, Otis and his calf buddy join a cow, some ducks, and a horse "for a grand game of follow-the-leader," with Otis motoring along, "putt puff puttedy chuff." Despite his popularity among livestock, Otis avoids the farm's hulking, rust-red bull, which Long pictures looming across an entire spread. The hostile bull lowers his thick head and flares his nostrils, and his hooves trample daisies in a wry allusion to The Story of Ferdinand. One stormy day, Otis senses danger "deep down in his pipes" and sees a tornado dipping from a slate-gray cloud. Leading the animals to safety, he remembers the bull, still locked in his corral. Like Lassie on wheels, Otis chugs to the rescue (the famers have leapt for the root cellar, and the other animals lack the tractor's keen perception, not to mention self-sacrificing nature). Long's sepia-tinged, rolling croplands evoke Dust Bowl paintings and photos, and Otis's heroism is steeped in old-fashioned Americana, from 1930s picture books to 1960s TV dramas. Ages 3â7.