E-I-E-I-O: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm (With a Little Help from Hen) by Judy Sierra

E-I-E-I-O: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm (With a Little Help from Hen) by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Matthew Myers

Rating: 4 stars

Now, just in time for Spring planting, we get the real scoop on Old MacDonald and that farm of his.

It turns out, all he had at the beginning was a house.  With a pretty big yard.  That needed a lot of mowing.  It needed so much mowing that that MacDonald guy decided to retire his mower and get a goat.  But the goat clearly had obedience issues: he ate the bushes instead.  MacDonald got smart and got a chicken.  Turns out, the chicken was top-notch and had a lot of good ideas about this yard of his.

She suggested to him that they tear up the grass.  No more mowing?  MacDonald was IN!  Then add lots of stuff to that muddy pit--trash, his own clothes, what he was eating...anything and everything goes in.  Even poop!  And finally, a warm worm family to make something of the mess.

"I love my yard / But mowing grass is mighty hard."

During this smelly process, illustrator Matthew Myers shows us protestors and complainers and haters (just to use slang as if I'm cooler than I am) in the background.  They complain about whatever he is doing: they hate how he doesn't keep his yard nicely mowed, they write picket signs as the yard turns into a brown mess, and they hold those signs even higher when the hen directs MacDonald to add horse manure and mix well.

You've probably seen what's coming: With all the ingredients already added, the worms create compost from this muddy, stinky pit.  Because the next thing he adds is seeds.  All sorts of seeds.  Myers gives us readers a fantastic over-and-under the ground illustration of carrots, beets, potatoes, onions as they use that soil to grow bigger and richer.  MacDonald has too much of a good thing (vegetables), so he opens a farmer's market to sell and share the fruits of his labor.

The end result: an urban farm!
Who knew Old MacDonald was a hipster?!

And those haters put down their picket signs and dig in to the good stuff.

I think this is a great book to get kids excited about gardening and get them thinking about composting. And even if you know you'll never compost OR garden, it's still a good read with wild, vibrant illustrations to go along with the story.  Judy Sierra has written some of my favorite rhyming books, especially Wild About Books.  (Click here for complete list of my reviews on her books.)  I completely look to her to teach me how to do it the right way, but this book has a few non-rhyming hiccups that keep it in the good, not great category.

But Kiefer sure doesn't care about that.  I've read it to him twice in one night.  For some reason he loves lawn mowers, so he loves this book regardless of the hiccups his critical mama sees!

Tell the Truth, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra

 Tell the Truth, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Jotto Seibold

Rating: 4 stars

When I was a kid, my dad always chose the bad guys as his favorite characters.  He'd root for Captain Hook and the Wicked Witch of the West.  He'd cheer for anyone dressed in black, anyone walking around sneakily, looking suspect.  Now, it is really amusing to watch him stick up for bad guys in front of my kids.  Conversations (mini-Platonic dialogues to my philosopher father) go something like this:

GRAND-Dad: That Captain Hook isn't such a bad guy!
Lorelei: No, he is, Grand-Dad.  He always tries to steal stuff and do bad things.
GRAND-Dad: So what?  Why can't I do bad things?
Lorelei: (thinking) Because you're supposed to make good choices!  And he makes bad ones.
GRAND-Dad: I like him.  And look at his cool hat, too.

One of his favorite villains is the big, bad wolf.  I remember him clearly telling me many times that the big, bad wolf "got a bad rap."  Yeah, all that huffing and puffing stuff was totally misunderstood, Dad...  But my Dad would be a fan of this book by the fantastic Judy Sierra. The big, bad wolf finally gets the spotlight!  "It's about time," my Dad would say.

"No one is falling for your story," cracked Humpty Dumpty.

In this quirky story, B.B. Wolf, who lives with all the other bad guys of childhood in Villain Villa, is invited to the library to tell the story of how he met the three little pigs.  He is no longer young and mean; he is a bespectacled and respectable old wolf.

Off he trots, and starts to tell the tale a little...differently.  He makes himself a huge hero, explaining that those huffs and puffs were, um, really sneezes and soft blows on a dandelion puff.  The houses just happened to be on the receiving end of those accidental air pockets.

In the audience sit the three little pigs, and they adamantly argue with ole B.B. Wolf.  "Tell the truth!" they call out.  After a few more feeble attempts at a good fib, B.B. Wolf can't take it anymore and begs their forgiveness.

"Well," said the first little pig, "I guess we could forgive you."
"It did happen a long time ago," said the second little pig.
"But your middle name is still Bad," added the third little pig.

But the sage wolf isn't content with the acceptance of his apology.  He goes home and tries to make it right.  He builds the three pigs a new home--a piggyback mansion.

I like this story because it reminds me of my funny dad, but also because B.B. Wolf "makes it right," which is something I try to instill in my little ones.  If Ben happens to shove Lorelei into a coffee table and she erupts into tears, he needs to apologize and "make it right" with a hug or offer to get her something to make her feel better.  I need to make sure they do this, because I'm not going to be able to see all their infractions, within my trio and beyond.  They need to have the empathy to know when they've hurt someone and to at least attempt to make it right.  I hope this skill lasts through adulthood...

But I really appreciate this book, it's a funny way to reinforce a lesson in our home.  Hope you like it, too!

Born To Read by Judy Sierra

Born To Read by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Marc Brown

Rating: 4.5 stars

If there has ever been a kid born to read, it's Kiefer.  Born to a book-loving Mom and two older siblings who are book-obsessed, I'm betting on him reading the soonest, just to catch up with the others.  Already when we dive into the new books in the library bag on the way home, he grunts his desires until someone hands him a book.  And then he squeaks out his own version of the book in a sing-songy way during the drive home.

Pretty adorable, though I'm completely biased.

Anyway, here's a book by the fantastic duo Judy Sierra and Marc Brown, who gave us the fantastic Wild About Books, among other titles I've not yet reviewed.  This book features not Kiefer but Sam, a boy who is confident in his readership.  Books pile up in his crib, he reads in the grocery store, he helps his sister understand notes left by their mom.  My favorite example of the helpfulness of his reading prowess:

Once when Sam was almost four,
His knees turned green, his thumbs got sore,
His cheeks were flecked with yellow spots. 

They rushed him off to Doctor Potts,
Who cried, "It's Martian Mustard-ation.
You will need an operation!" 

Sam asked, "Is that necessary?
Let me see that dictionary.
Here's a better diagnosis:
Harmless Preschool Play-dough-osis."

I love it!

There's a hiccup of sorts towards the end of the book...  I can't figure out how Sam is suddenly battling a baby giant called Grundaloon, who stomps through Sam's town doing things that mean bullies--and, apparently, baby giants--do.  Though no one else dares confront him, young Sam has the moxie to go right up to him, invite him to tea, and read a book or two with him.  This time, books soothe the savage beast, and Grundaloon stops tormenting the town.

Seems a little like two books haphazardly combined into one, but the rhymes are so good and the illustrations so wonderful I have to forgive Judy Sierra and Marc Brown and go with it.

You can't help but love this book that celebrates reading and readers, despite the odd addition of ol' Grundaloon...

Wild About Books by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Marc Brown

 Wild About Books by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Marc Brown

Rating: 5 wild stars

This is, hands down, one of the best books we've stumbled upon in the past year.  It.  Is.  Awesome!  Sometimes you just get lucky, and the librarians chose to display a book that looks interesting AND fits in with the week's field trip.

Librarian Molly McGrew mistakenly drives her bookmobile into the zoo.  Oops!  Instead of kids coming to look at books, the animals start to peer  from their cages at the page-filled wonders. Molly decides to crack open one and holds her first-ever (we guess) storytime for animals.  Here's the delight-filled passage that tells the reader what happens:

By reading aloud from the good Dr. Seuss,She quickly attracted a mink and a moose,A wombat, an oryx, a lemur, a lynx,Eight elephant calves, and a family of skinks. 

Giraffes wanted tall books and crickets craved small books,
While geckos could only read stick-to-the-wall books

This causes a stampede of animals, all heading towards the bookmobile to get their own books.  Sierra works wonders with her words--she matches beast to book beautifully.  She draws in readers Lorelei and Ben's age by easily by referencing classics that they've already read--The Cat in the Hat and Goodnight Moon--but also makes their parents smile by referencing soon-to-be-known classics: Nancy Drew and Harry Potter, for example.  


Marc Brown's illustrations are the perfect compliment to her words.  Each page shows a different creature clutching a book of some sort (although the alligators are eating their book, something that Ben pointed out as "not a good choice," which is ironic because our board books still have his munch-marks in them).  They are silly and cute and totally captivating.


I'm having a hard time not buying this book right this moment!  I will resist.  I will resist.  I will try to resist...!

I don't use any technology while reading to my kids.  It sorta seems like an oxymoron.  I hear of these mysterious things called "apps" and I figure they are tools for people who have much cooler phones than my not-so-smartphone (a Droid and, for the record, I have one app I don't use).  But I came across this little clip from Random House showing the app for this book (or maybe an app for more children's books?) and I might check it out.  After bedtime, in case I decide it's not worth introducing.  Here it is:

I am skeptical.  Call me a luddite, but I like the whole pages-on-my-fingertips thing.  But I'm very curious if you use an iPad with your preschoolers.  How?  When?  At what age?  Do you sit with them, or let them do it themselves?  Do they still want to read the old-timey page books, or just want the ones on your iPod?  Or (it's hard for me to type this, but...) their own iPad?