Title: Annie Mae and the Wild Wagon Ride
Author: Ellie Weaver
Publisher: Elizabeth Weaver
ISBN: 978-0-578-55820-2
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Pages: 24
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
In author Ellie Weaver’s book titled, Annie Mae and the Wild Wagon Ride, she also adds the story A Cake for Aunt Susie, resulting in two stories staring the loveable Annie Mae.
In the first story, Annie and her brother Marty decide to have some fun with their little wagon, whereas Marty can be the horse and pull Annie, then they can switch places. So, they bring the wagon to the top of a small hill near the barn and Annie gets in. Well, the wagon begins to roll downhill, picking up speed, and Annie loses control of steering it. She plows into her mother’s tomato plants, getting red stains on her dress and dirt on her face. Nobody got hurt, except the tomatoes!
When Annie was confronted with a decision about what to tell her mom as to how she soiled her dress, she was told to say that she was making tomato juice. But Annie told the truth, about having the joy-ride in the wagon, which got out of control. I liked the moral of this story to tell the truth.
The second half of the book dealt with the making of a chocolate cake to bring to Aunt Susie; as her aunt was recovering from a broken arm. Annie and her mom began mixing the ingredients for the cake batter, and Annie brings a ruler to help her mom measure. That was an adorable gesture as children have to learn about liquid measurements in measuring cups, and not needing to use a ruler.
Annie Mae and the Wild Wagon Ride is accented with full-page illustrations artfully showing the key moments in the two stories. The text flows fluently with the written voice of a loving narrator, which will comfort and lull the little ones being read this book off to sleep. Dreams of coasting down a hill into a patch of tomatoes or licking the mixing spoon of chocolate cake batter will spice up the kid’s imaginations. These two stories brought back to me my own memories about an out-of-control wagon ride when I was a child, and of course, licking the cake batter off a wooden mixing spoon. Ellie Weaver has written a book children will adore.
