A quirky little story about a 'grampa' who is too old to help plant corn on the farm and his grandson Beanie who is too young. To pass the time, grampa relates a story from 1928 when there was no corn. Young Beanie is riveted yet seems to have heard the story many times as he jumps in periodically and finishes his grampa's sentence. In the tale, no matter what the family did, they couldn't grow any corn. There was flooding, wind storms, and hungry crows. Grampa lets Beanie know that he never let it get him down, which seems to be the point of his tale. ( )

The cover inspired me to pick it up on a mass grab at the library. Turns out the story isn't as dramatic as the cover, and I don't like the way Parker draws people at all. I did like the way the story built - the first reason the crop failed was entirely plausible, but by the end the tall tale was so absurd that even a toddler would laugh at the silly grandpa and child. ( )

This story involes Old Grampa and Beanie. They have each been left out of the corn planting and seem useless on the farm. Old Grampa spins a tale that is both unbelievable and motivational. No matter what obstacles came up dirung the year of no corn, the people continued to try and fail. In the end, it took an act of hope that did not seem like it would work to succeed. Never give up and sometimes a person needs to follow their heart. ( )