Hide That Hide! Hide and Sheep by Andrea Beaty

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! FARMER MCFITT!

YOU HAVE SHEEP TO SHEAR AND CLOTHES TO KNIT!"

McFitt's flock, up to this time snoozing warmly in comfy piles around the good farmer's bedchamber, are jolted awake with the unpleasant prospect of a shearing. If they want to avoid close shaves, it's time to hide their hides!

And McFitt's flock is on to the ploy of hiding in plain view, and they know all the right places to pull the wool, so to speak, over his eyes. Where better to hide than in a place chock-full of animals?

TEN FRISKY RAMS RUN AWAY TO THE ZOO.
TO MEET AN OKAPI, A KIND KANGAROO,

A SPOTTED GIRAFFE WITH HIS HEAD IN THE TREES;
THEY HANG OUT AND PLAY WITH THE WILD CHIMPANZEES.

As they count down their numbers, the remainders blend into the circus side shows, catch a bit of grazing in the outfield at the baseball park, hide among the audience in a movie theatre, pose as sculptures at the museum, and peek from the stacks at the public library:

NOVELS AND POETRY! ALL OF IT FREE!
THEY NOSH AND THEY NIBBLE FROM A DOWN TO Z.

McFitt's flock fleece the farmer in Andrea Beaty's brand-new Hide and Sheep (Margaret K. Elderry Books, 2011) as the sheep go on a jolly jaunt around town, pursued by McFitt with his shears. Beaty's rhythmic couplets keep the story hoofing it along, aided by Bill Meyer's clever ink and watercolor illustrations. Kids will enjoy the chase and will giggle as the fluffy fugitives find ways to hide themselves in public, and grown-up narrators will enjoy the visual humor Meyer tucks into the illustrations for adult eyes to spot. All's well that ends swell, and McFitt finally accomplishes his feat of fleecing his flock and knitting up their wool for wintry days in this latest exercise in now-you-see-them-now-you-don't chases.

It's weather for sweaters, and just in time for a bully woolly chase.