Tom loves running through cow fields with his best friend, Peggy, and his dog, Amos—especially when he's pretending to be his favorite radio hero, the Lone Ranger.
But when Tom learns the nearby Fraser River is about to flood, he may have to become a real-life hero and help save his family's herd of dairy cows. This story is based on real events that happened in the farming community of Agassiz during the Fraser River flood of 1948.
The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.
June 1, 2012
Grades 2-4 With the winter mountain snow melting, the Fraser River in British Columbia is starting to overflow its banks, threatening rural homes and dairy farms. An evacuation train is leaving for Vancouver, but with fields increasingly filling with water, the cows are in danger, too, and third-grader Tom stays back to help get them to higher ground. Moving them proves challenging, but with some Lone Ranger inspiration (Tom's hero), persistence, and his dog Amos' assistance, Tom helps lead the cows to safety, where his family and others must camp to weather the flood. This Orca Echoes early chapter book offers an accessible, well-paced read while conveying the nature of floods, from preparationssuch as shoring up with sand bags and moving furniture upstairsto the geological impact. Leavening the suspenseful moments are light touches like Tom's coaxing of a very vocal stranded calf. Black-and-white drawings of characters, rural settings, and scenarios provide historic flavor to the story, which is based on the real Fraser River flood of 1948.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)