Stanley, Diane.  1996.  SAVING SWEETNESS.  New York:  Penguin Putnam Books.  ISBN:  0399236451.

Saving Sweetness is a hilarious story about a big-hearted sheriff and a tiny little orphan by the name of Sweetness.  She decides the orphanage is more than she take with ole’ grouchy Ms. Sump in charge.  The orphans wear themselves out by scrubbing the floor with their toothbrushes.  Ms. Sump looks “like something’ the cat drug in and the dog wouldn’t eat.”  Page 2.  Sweetness decides it is time to run away and find a new way of living.  The sheriff hears from Ms.  Sump, “That provokin’ little twerp-I mean that dear child, Sweetness, done escaped-I mean disappeared.  And I’m fit to be tied, worrying’ about that pore thang all pink and helpless…” page 3.  The story continues with idioms and similes through out.  The sheriff thinks he is saving Sweetness from the scorpions and Coyote Pete.  Sweetness saves him three times, with water from her canteen, roasting marshmallows and thumps Coyote Pete out with a rock.  The sheriff feels the only way to bring Sweetness back to town is for him to adopt her.  He ends up adopting all eight of the children in the orphanage. 

 

 

Stanley, Diane.  1999.  RAISING SWEETNESS.  New York:  Penguin Putnam Books.  ISBN:  0399232257.

The generous unmarried sheriff has been caring for all the children from the orphanage.  He does all the cooking and cleaning for the eight children.  This charming sequel continues to make the reader laugh and enjoy the antics of the sheriff and the orphans.  One by one through out the story the orphans suggest and hint to their “paw” that it sure would be nice he if got married. He is a good parent and boasts, “every dang day I sweep their little beds and hang their clothes out on the line to get clean.”  Page 4. The western twang and comical situations make this story just as enjoyable as the first.  A letter arrives and none of the children or the sheriff can read the note.  Sweetness decides that she will learn to read by hanging outside the window of the school house.  As the story progresses, the reader suspects the letter is from the sheriff’s “long lost love, Lucy Locket.”  Time passes, and the angelic, beautiful, smart Lucy Lou appears at the door.  The happy ending of marriage brings this entertaining story to an end.

 

The illustrator for both books is Brian Karas.  He “combines gouache, acrylic, and pencil drawings with cyanotype photographs, Karas’s illustrations evoke the arid landscape of the West yet remain wonderfully original.”  School Library Journal.  Mr. Karas lives in Phoenix and his knowledge of the western setting is very obvious in his drawings.  The browns, yellows, and cactus green, bring a desert feeling to the stories.  

 

The figurative languages used in both stories are very similar.  The country folksy dialect make the reader feel they are in the desert standing next to the sheriff, Sweetness, and Coyote Pete.  Diane Stanley “used as many idioms as I could in the Sweetness books.  I did it because I love language, and find it fascinating.  I think it makes the books fun to read.”  In SAVING SWEETNESS, the sheriff tells Coyote Pete, “Listen here, hamster brain,” I says, “you’re riding’ for a fall.  You put down that there gun or I’m gonna knock you into the middle of next week.”  Page 28. 

 

SAVING SWEETNESS and RAISING SWEETNESS are charming, sweet, and hilarious read alouds.  The third grade students and older understand the humor and the language used in both of these stories.  Sweetness wins the sheriffs heart with her innocence and pure corniness.  Sweetness also wins the readers fascination of what is going to happen next to her and the orphans.