Come, Llamas
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
It’s spring time on the Kinnaman Ranch in Alaska, and nine-year-old JT is sure it will be the best one yet. This season he’s determined to become a pitcher on his school’s baseball team and to raise his very own llama, just like Grandad promised. When baby llama Elmo is born, JT has all kinds of plans for the first of his herd. Every night after baseball practice, JT trains Elmo. And every morning, the small llama seems to be growing stronger—even as Grandad’s persistant cough gets worse and worse.
Then a bear charges through their property, and JT doesn’t see how their family will manage. Half their llamas are gone, Elmo’s leg is broken, and it’s not long before Grandad needs to be rushed to the clinic. But everything’s always growing and changing on a llama ranch, and JT will find a way to keep on keeping on and make Grandad proud.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A unique setting and lifestyle mark this first novel about nine-year-old JT Kinnaman's coming-of-age. Springtime on the Kinnamans' Alaskan llama ranch is birthing season, and JT, the youngest of his family, has been promised the first newborn will be his to raise. In a gritty opening chapter, the first "cria" is stillborn, but its tiny twin survives. JT nurtures "Elmo," and the llama gets stronger in deliberate contrast to JT's 86-year-old grandfather, whose life is ebbing. Despite the plot's predictability and the unappealing cover art, there's plenty here to attract boys, who'll envy JT his "FourTrax," the four-wheel vehicle he drives everywhere, including across the wilderness to rescue Elmo after a bear attacks the herd. Squeamish readers, be forewarned the family burns the dead baby llama's carcass because fresh meat of any kind would attract predators and the scene where JT's mother sets a llama's broken leg is hard to read without wincing. A subplot involving JT's baseball team seems tacked on, but the details are authentic. Middle-graders will likely be entranced by the unusual JT, who mucks barns before school, mixes up biscuit dough for two dozen and, when the injured Elmo can't nurse, milks a llama himself and feeds it to the animal through a rubber kitchen glove. Laura Ingalls Wilder's got nothing on this modern-day pioneer. Ages 8-12.
