Calm Your Farm

Calm Your Farm written and illustrated by Dale Baker (Little Big Sky Books) HB RRP $24.99 ISBN: 9781923514256

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

Has anyone ever told you to ‘calm your farm’? Settle down? Stress less? Just be quiet?

Despite the crow of a rooster in the morning, the moo of cows, the cluckety-cluck of chickens and the occasional grunt of a pig, farms are not exactly known to be noisy and chaotic places. Busy, yes. Needing to be told to ‘calm down!’, no.

Welcome to Dale Baker’s farm.

A farm where the animals have, to put it simply, gone berserk.

Imagine the chaos caused by ducks with water guns, egg-throwing chickens and tractor-driving cows (who probably shouldn’t be behind the wheel). All the animals are running amok … except one little fella, and he just doesn’t know what to do … until it all gets too much!

The question is ‘why?’ What has caused this farm to lose its calm?

Dale Baker’s lively illustrations capture the pandemonium of farm life when things go just a little (or a lot) awry.

Children aged 4 – 8 years will delight in Calm Your Farm – the rollicking story of a farmer and one sensible duck who just want everyone to do their job.

I Love to Draw

I Love to Draw written and illustrated by Dale Baker (Little Big Sky Books) HB RRP $24.99 ISBN: 9781923514263

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

Do you love to draw?

Or maybe you love to write?

What if you could hone your skills in both – like Dale Baker demonstrates in I Love to Draw?

This fun concept book is part expository text aimed to convince readers how much fun drawing is, and part instruction manual with some fun (and easy-looking) drawing activities. The simple narrative, told by an unseen narrator who clearly wants to share his love of drawing, explores what is possible when you pick up a piece of paper and a pencil.

Are you sure that what you’re looking at is a penguin? Look at it another way, and maybe it’s a giraffe. What can you do with an ‘H’, a ‘U’ and an upside-down ‘7’?  What might a simple line drawing turn into if you let your imagination run wild?

With fun, encouraging text and simple yet engaging illustrations, children aged 4 – 8 years will surely want to pick up their own pencils and see what they can create after exploring this charming picture book.  

Calm Your Farm

Calm Your Farm written and illustrated by Dale Baker (Little Big Sky Books) HB RRP $24.99 ISBN: 9781923514256

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

Has anyone ever told you to ‘calm your farm’? Settle down? Stress less? Just be quiet?

Despite the crow of a rooster in the morning, the moo of cows, the cluckety-cluck of chickens and the occasional grunt of a pig, farms are not exactly known to be noisy and chaotic places. Busy, yes. Needing to be told to ‘calm down!’, no.

Welcome to Dale Baker’s farm. A farm where the animals have, to put it simply, gone berserk.

Imagine the chaos caused by ducks with water guns, egg-throwing chickens and tractor-driving cows (who probably shouldn’t be behind the wheel). All the animals are running amok … except one little fella, and he just doesn’t know what to do … until it all gets too much!

The question is ‘why?’ What has caused this farm to lose its calm?

Dale Baker’s lively illustrations capture the pandemonium of farm life when things go just a little (or a lot) awry.

Children aged 4 – 8 years will delight in Calm Your Farm – the rollicking story of a farmer and one sensible duck who just want everyone to do their job.