Look Out Below! Lambslide by Ann Patchett

On the farm there was a flock of lambs who believed that the sun came up in the morning because they were ready to play.

One day these slightly spoiled lambs overhear a conversation between Nicolette Farmer and her mother.

"I'm going to run for class president today," Nicolette said.

Mrs. Farmer said, "You'll win by a landslide!"

Knowing nothing of avalanches and such, the little lambs think the Farmers are talking about a "lambslide," a sliding board meant just for lambs! It makes sense. After all, the horses get to go on fun rides; the piglets get all the mud to wallow in they want, so why shouldn't the lambs get their own lambslide?

But who will pay for it? The chickens report that the Farmers are the ones who pay for everything!

So the lambs prepare their campaign for their very own big slide. They make banners and signs.

LAMBSLIDE!
For Kids and EWE!

The Farmers, especially Nicolette, are on it right away, assembling tarps and hay bales and building supplies and enlisting all the farm animals to pitch in. And pitch in they do, and soon the lambs are modeling the technique for lambsliding for all the critters and kids for miles around.

In Ann Patchett's latest, Lambslide (Harper, 2019), it's a simple premise based on a silly lambkin malapropism, but who cares, when Robin Preiss Glaser, famous for her artwork for the Fancy Nancy series, provides the patently cute illustrations of charming little lambs and jolly piglets, ponies, hens, and even cows, all enjoying the lambslide for themselves in a spree of down-on-the-farm glee. There are some happy high jinks and a picnic down by the Farmer's barn, in a fine picture book farm fest, and this one makes for a great read-along, especially for primary students preparing for their first farm field trip.

For more sheepish fun, share this one with Nancy Shaw's classic Sheep in a Jeep (board book) and many rhyming sequels (see reviews here).