Baby Animal Farm

Baby Animal Farm by Karen Blair (Walker Books)

HB RRP $24.95

ISBN 9781921720376

Reviewed by Vicki Stanton

Baby Animal Farm is the perfect book for younger children. Five toddler friends spend a day venturing through a farm meeting baby animals along the way. The text is comfortably predictable and simple with one animal and then the sound the animal makes. ‘Cuddle the kittens. Mew, mew, mew.’

Of course, there is a break for lunch (‘Munch, munch, munch.’). Karen Blair has taken this book above the average baby animal farm book by injecting toddler angst when the one of the toddlers asks, ‘Where’s my teddy? Where? Where? Where?’ A puppy which has featured in the background of the illustrations saves the day to the delight of the five. The day ends with them asleep in their strollers.

The book is delightfully presented with the endpapers being utilised to their full extent. Both are fully illustrated with the back ones showing the farm and the baby animals asleep at night. Illustrations in pastel shades perfectly complement the text. Baby Animal Farm is a perfect book for carer and child to share.

Spitting Image

Spitting Image (Lightning Strikes) by James Roy (Walker Books)

PB RRP $ 12.95

ISBN 978-1-921977-49-7

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

Lightning Strikes is a terrific series of books for junior readers of both genders. They are by different authors with different topics. In Spitting Image we meet twins Helen and Charlie and toddler Abby, and Mum and Dad as they set out on a family outing. The destination is supposed to be the Zoo but they end up at Farmer Phil’s Fabbo Funtime Family Farm, aka a petting zoo.

The twins know it will be boring. They’d looked forward to poisonous snakes, reticulated pythons, even an anaconda. What they get is farm animals and alpacas, and even more boring events - or so they think.

Their parents mock their negativity and try to shift them into a positive mood by suggesting to Helen that she make use of her new camera to take photos of the animals. The complaints and groans continue. It is this new camera that causes her to fall into the alpaca enclosure which sets off a chain of unfortunate, catastrophic and chaotic events that are anything but boring.

It starts when Farmer Phil forgets to close the gate to the enclosure and the alpacas escape. They mix in with and frighten the cows that are halfway through an automated milking session. The cows try to escape and mayhem follows as the children try to round up the alpacas and experience all the animals’ oddities in the process. But then there’s the sheep dog trials, and the tangling of the rope attached to the alpaca with the mountain bike, and the list goes on.

This is a hilarious and unbelievably entertaining read.  It’s fast moving; unstoppable in fact until the last full stop. This is certainly a fabulous read for young people and older people who still nurture the child within and who enjoy a good laugh.

Little Red Ute Visits the Farm; Little Red Ute and The Dump Trucks

Little Red Ute Visits the Farm and Little Red Ute and The Dump Trucks written by Mitch Lewis, illustrated by Nahum Ziersch (Omnibus Books for Scholastic Aust)
PB RRP $9.99
Recommended for 3+ years
Reviewed by Dawn Meredith

Little Red Ute loves adventure. Where there’s excitement and someone needing help, he’s there, with his friend Green Wheelbarrow, who rides in the tray.

In this adventure he’s on the farm, helping Farmer White, who wants to get the barn wind proofed before winter. But the foreman isn’t sure Little Red can actually be much help, so he sends Little Red Ute on a tour of the farm, meeting other important machinery such as the tractor and the combine harvester. But wait, what’s that? Someone is dangling dangerously from the roof of the barn? Little Red Ute speeds away across the dirt to rescue the foreman.

Ziersch’s illustrations are vibrant, full of colour and action, with faces on each machine reminiscent of the ‘Bob the Builder’ and ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ series. It’s appealing and the story neatly educates children about farm life, the animals that live there and the tasks to be done.

In Little Red Ute and The Dump Trucks our hero is dauntingly impressed by the huge trucks in his yard, who ferry huge loads and thunder past, ‘casting him in shadow’. Like a pesky puppy, Little Red Ute wants to help, but what can a tiny ute do to assist these monster trucks? The foreman angrily tells Little Red Ute to get out of the way.

But then, you guessed it, something goes wrong and the foreman needs his help. (Doesn’t that foreman ever learn?) A convoy of logging trucks has overturned and have no fuel left. Little Red Ute scurries back and forth to the depot to bring them fuel. He works tirelessly, just like the dump trucks and is rewarded with praise from the foreman and a toot from the school bus. Aw!

There are a couple of themes I like about these stories. One is children wanting to help and adults supposing they are ‘in the way’ and the other is children proving they can work just as hard when they are motivated.

Dawn Meredith is a May Gibbs Fellow for 2010 and writes from the Blue Mountains. www.dawnmeredithauthor.blogpsot.com