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Summary
Summary
Mounting his horse, cold-hearted John Leep smiles as he anticipates evicting the widow Mayes for nonpayment of rent. When she comes up with the rent after all, Leep, unwilling to be disappointed, knocks her coins to the floor and hides one of them in his boot. The widow will be evicted in the morning; but as he departs, Leep is pursued by an unseen stalker. As Leep rides faster, so does his pursuer--clippity-cloppity, clippity-cloppity--until Leep reaches his home. Is John Leep safe at last or is Ol' Clip-Clop gonna SWALLOW HIM WHOLE?!!!!
Author Notes
Patricia C. McKissack was born in Smyrna, Tennessee on August 9, 1944. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Tennessee State University in 1964 and a master's degree in early childhood literature and media programming from Webster University in 1975. After college, she worked as a junior high school English teacher and a children's book editor at Concordia Publishing.
Since the 1980's, she and her husband Frederick L. McKissack have written over 100 books together. Most of their titles are biographies with a strong focus on African-American themes for young readers. Their early 1990s biography series, Great African Americans included volumes on Frederick Douglass, Marian Anderson, and Paul Robeson. Their other works included Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers and Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States. Over their 30 years of writing together, the couple won many awards including the C.S. Lewis Silver Medal, a Newbery Honor, nine Coretta Scott King Author and Honor awards, the Jane Addams Peace Award, and the NAACP Image Award for Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?. In 1998, they received the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
She also writes fiction on her own. Her book included Flossie and the Fox, Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt, A Friendship for Today, and Let's Clap, Jump, Sing and Shout; Dance, Spin and Turn It Out! She won the Newberry Honor Book Award and the King Author Award for The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural in 1993 and the Caldecott Medal for Mirandy and Brother Wind. She dead of cardio-respiratory arrest on April 7, 2017 at the age of 72.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In a ghostly story in the vein of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and A Christmas Carol, an 18th-century miser, John Leep, rides on horseback to evict a woman from her residence. But as darkness falls over the forest-exquisitely rendered in Velasquez's milky, naturalistic paintings-Leep hears the "Clip. Clop" of a ghostly rider behind him. After cruelly deceiving his desperate tenant ("You're short. This isn't everything you owe me!"), he journeys home, again pursued by the invisible horseman. Readers who crave truly scary stories won't be disappointed by the conclusion to this enigmatic tale-and a great many will jump out of their seats. Ages 6-9. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
On October 13, 1741, heartless moneygrubber John Leep sets out to evict the Widow Mayes from one of his properties. After being chased by a ghostly echo of horses' hooves, John arrives at the widow's front door visibly shaken and nastier than ever -- he steals a coin from her rent payment to ensure that she loses her home. Little does he know it's the last cruel deed he'll ever commit. The dark, muted shades of Velasquez's oil paintings enhance the hair-raising text. shara l. hardeson (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
In this familiar-feeling tale, a man is being trailed by some intangible force while riding his horse through a darkened autumn landscape in a small colonial town. Throughout the ride, the clippity-clop sounds of a horse's hooves seem to be pursing the man, yet nothing is there. The horseman, we learn, is so mean that he finds it pleasing that he is riding out to evict a poor widow from her home which gives readers a good idea that this outing is not going to end well for the dastardly rider. The expert pacing, attention-grabbing sound effects make this a winner, not to mention an ending featuring the kind of quick revelation that will have your whole audience of kids screaming and your storyteller laughing. The realistic style and dark palette of the illustrations effectively convey the frights and further heighten the strong sense of the text's foreboding. The extreme darkness in many of the scenes, though adding to the creepiness, might present some challenges for large groups, so plan your (spooky) lighting accordingly.--Enos, Randall Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-John Leep, a miserly landlord living in 1741, gleefully sets out to evict his tenant, the widow Mayes. It is a cold, dark night, Friday the 13th even, but Leep will not wait until morning. He wants to set an example for all of his tenants-pay up or get out. As he travels by horseback to the house, he keeps hearing another rider behind him. The sound of horses' hooves is employed throughout the story to build anticipation and suspense. After deceiving the woman, he heads home, and the simple "clip clop" grows in speed and complexity until a breathless "clippitycloppityclippitycloppityclippitycloppity" puts Leep at his door. Dark, ominous images, rendered in mixed media and oil, suit the nighttime setting and reinforce the eerie, somber tone of the story. Leep looks like an ordinary man, not a stereotypical villain. His selfishness is conveyed through his sneering expression when widow Mayes begs for one more night in her home. Appropriately, he looks nervous during his frightening ride, but he never appears to think something could really hurt him-until the shocking conclusion. The twist at the end is scary and makes the book better suited to an elementary audience than a younger one. The tale is tailor-made for storytellers who want to actively engage their audiences.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Storyteller McKissack crafts a spine-tingling tale set during colonial times about a greedy man who just may get the scare of his life. The author captivates from the start. John Leep "had a mean streak in him that ran the length of his long, thin body. Wasn't poverty that made him hard. He had plenty of money. But John Leep had a stingy heart." So he sets off on his horse to evict the widow Mayes. As they travel, the horse's hooves make a steady "clip-clop." Periodically, Leep pauses, believing he hears another horse and rider following him. Velasquez wisely keeps the focus on John Leep's face. As John goes further away from town, the scenes begin to envelop him in shadow. His arrogant countenance slowly transforms, first showing annoyance, then worry and then fear. He plays a trick to cheat the widow, but something is listening. On his ride home, he goes faster and faster, and the sounds of the mysterious rider keep pace, frenzied, onomatopoeic hoofbeats punctuating the text: "Clippitycloppityclippitycloppity." He makes it home, but he is never seen again. Some say "Ol' Clip-Clop / SWALLOWED HIM WHOLE!!!!!!!" And on the last, page, the illustrator paints a most horrifying specter poised to do just that. This splendid "jump story" is not for the faint of heart, but readers who relish edge-of-the-seat suspense done impeccably will be well-satisfied. (Picture book. 6-10)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
