Down-Home Twelve Days of Christmas

K-Gr 2—Southern gal Cyndi Lou lives in a double-wide with her Memaw. It being the holiday season, her suitor Billy Ray sends her a possum in a sweet gum tree. And then two armadillos, three hunting dogs, and so on, including such Southern tropes as Walmart shoppers, NASCAR drivers, and Baptist preachers. All of the gifts accumulate with every additional day. The armadillos end up as roadkill (except for the one Memaw roasts and serves), Cyndi Lou marries a NASCAR driver, and Memaw is last seen leading a cavalcade of mismatched characters armed with 12 muzzle loaders in search of that dang Billy Ray. Cyndi Lou's letters to Billy Ray, written in response to each day's present, are written in an exaggerated Southern drawl as thick and sticky-sweet as molasses. The full-page illustrations are cluttered with dogs, possums, mockingbirds, and Southern stereotypes, all having a grand ole time.