Author: Jerdine Nolen
Title: Thunder Rose
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Readability score: Kindergarten to Grade 3
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: Tall Tale
Theme: Never give up on your dreams. Be heroic.
Primary and secondary characters: Rose, Millicent and Jackson MacGruder, Tater
Awards: Coretta Scott King Award 2004
Date of Publication: 2003
Publishing company: Harcourt Books
ISBN number: 0-15-216472-3
Rose was born on a dark, stormy night to Jackson and Millicent MacGruder. As soon as she was born, the baby sat up and looked around. She thanked her parents for birthing her and she said she wanted to be named Rose. What a surprise! She took the lightning right from the sky. Rose grew up drinking milk straight from the cow. She was strong. She worked hard around the farm, fixing fences and carrying milk. When she was twelve, she found her friend, Tater the bull. She also made a wire fence that would later be called barbed wire after her friend Barbara Jay. Rose was sent to Abilene to trade cattle at the market. While she was there, she caught the outlaw Jesse Baines. On her way home, the cows began to thirst to death. Rose decided to squeeze the clouds for rain. All of a sudden, a tornado came up. Rose lassoed the tornado and used lightning to bring the rain. She was known all across the land as Thunder Rose.
This story provides an alternative to the typical Western story. It is a tall tale, but it introduces language that was typical in the early West. I would use this story as an introduction to figurative language and how tall tales use figurative language. The students can make connections to the text by deciding what is real in the story and what is only figurative. For example, I would ask the students if newborn babies are strong enough to lift a cow. Obviously, they would say that was not possible. I would say that this is an example of an element of tall tales. They stretch the imagination.
Rose was born on a dark, stormy night to Jackson and Millicent MacGruder. As soon as she was born, the baby sat up and looked around. She thanked her parents for birthing her and she said she wanted to be named Rose. What a surprise! She took the lightning right from the sky. Rose grew up drinking milk straight from the cow. She was strong. She worked hard around the farm, fixing fences and carrying milk. When she was twelve, she found her friend, Tater the bull. She also made a wire fence that would later be called barbed wire after her friend Barbara Jay. Rose was sent to Abilene to trade cattle at the market. While she was there, she caught the outlaw Jesse Baines. On her way home, the cows began to thirst to death. Rose decided to squeeze the clouds for rain. All of a sudden, a tornado came up. Rose lassoed the tornado and used lightning to bring the rain. She was known all across the land as Thunder Rose.
This story provides an alternative to the typical Western story. It is a tall tale, but it introduces language that was typical in the early West. I would use this story as an introduction to figurative language and how tall tales use figurative language. The students can make connections to the text by deciding what is real in the story and what is only figurative. For example, I would ask the students if newborn babies are strong enough to lift a cow. Obviously, they would say that was not possible. I would say that this is an example of an element of tall tales. They stretch the imagination.
