Peep, Peep, Peep... Please Sleep! Click, Clack, Peep! by Doreen Cronin

Down on the Brown farm, there is spring anticipation in the air. The duck egg Farmer Brown ordered has come and it's about to hatch. The farm animals all wait with baited breath!

NOT A MOO!

NOT A CLUCK!

NOT AN OINK!

THEN... A CRACK!

First a crack, then a tiny wing, then a webbed foot, and finally, with a CRAA-AACK!, there's Baby Duck, with a helmet of shell still on her head!

Baby Duck is proud to be there, and she greets all the waiting animals.

"PEEP, PEEP, PEEP!"

This duckling has a healthy set of lungs and endless enthusiasm for communication. After a few hundred peeps, the farm animals are yawning and ready to settle down for the night. Farmer Brown is ready to turn in and call it a day, too. But this spring peeper is only just getting started.

"PEEP, PEEP, PEEP!
PEEP, PEEP, PEEP!
PEEP, PEEP, PEEP"

It looks like this newborn is prepared to make it an all-nighter. The bleary-eyed hens cluck a lullaby, the sheep quickly knits up a soft baby blanket, and the cows shut the barn door and lower their shades, Even the mice head for the hills, yawning all the way.

But as usual, it's Duck to the rescue, He cranks up Farmer's noisy but trusty tractor and drives back and forth around the field, with Baby Duck in his blankie on board.

Back and forth, to a PEEP, PEEP, PEEP! Around again. PEEP! PEEP! Even the tractor looks tired, as once more, Duck retraces his route, and Farmer Brown cringes in his bed, pillow over his head.

"PEEP.... SLEEP!

At last, there's not a peep and all get their sleep, in Doreen Cronin's latest in her fine and funny farm critter series, Click, Clack, Peep! (Atheneum Books, 2015). Kids will love to put their PEEPS into the story when this one is read aloud, while artist Betsy Lewin's bucolic illustrations extend the text with adorable rustic silliness that can't be beat. Another big hit in this popular series (which began with the best-selling Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type from this dynamic author/illustrator duo.

Other not-to-be-missed full-size picture books in this countryside series include Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Dooby Dooby Moo Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure, and Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat.

Bah! Halloween Humbug! Click, Clack, Boo! A Tasty Treat by Doreen Cronin

FARMER BROWN DID NOT LIKE HALLOWEEN.

WITCHES GAVE HIM NIGHTMARES.

But do the merry pranksters out in the barnyard give a marshmallow peanut? No, they do not.

Farmer Brown may pull the shades, hang a DO NOT DISTURB sign on his locked front door, put on his fuzzy, footy PJs, and douse all the lights, but out in the barn the cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens are all set to par-tay in the hay! Cow skeletons and princess pigs cavort and prance, sheep sprout witches' hats, and the chickens--are those the hens under those ghostly shrouds?

Snug under his quilt, Farmer Brown can't help hearing the racket being raised in the barn--and the leafy footfalls near the house, followed by  a tap, tap, tapping at his door. A furtive peek under the shade shows a shadowy, cloaked figure, haunting the house from under a dark tree outside. Then there is an even stranger sound.

"QUACK, QUACK, QUACKLE."

QUACKLE?

With all this suspicious activity, what's a conscientious farmer to do?

As all readers will have guessed by now, Dracula Duck will see to it that Farmer Brown will soon be raising the roof out in the barn with his critter tricksters in this Halloween treat, Doreen Cronin's and Betsy Lewin's latest, Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat (Atheneum Books, 2013). Cronin's verses are still dressed with her characteristic verve and rhythm, and Betsy Lewin's illustrations (see her chickens comically draped as ghosts) glow with Halloween humor like a smiling Jack-o'-lantern. That big ole' harvest moon lights the scene, done up in a midnight blue background with plenty of Halloween orange accents, while the pigs scarf up candy corn at liberty, the sheep boogie down, and everybody gets a prize. It's a happy holiday treat for fans of Cronin and Lewin's barnyard bunch.

Other books in this rowdy rural series include the best-selling Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure, (see my review here) and Dooby Dooby Moo, to name but a few.

Night Shift: Horseplay! by Karma Wilson

ONE DAY WHILE FARMER WORKED HIS FIELD,
HE CRIED, "FOR GOODNESS SAKE!
THESE HORSES ARE A WORTHLESS BUNCH--
THEY JUST CAN'T STAY AWAKE!"

These nags are lagging! Their withers seem weary, their stifles seem somnolent, and even their pasterns are pooped. Farmer's whole draft team is draggin'. He can't figure what's wrong with his horses. Are they ill, or are they just lollygagging when there's work to be done?

It seems that some spy work is in order. Farmer hides out in the hay to surveil his horses while they sleep to see what's up. But the problem is obvious--they are NOT sleeping in their stalls!

THESE HORSES DIDN'T SLEEP ONE BIT.
THEY FROLICKED ON THE LOOSE.
GAMES LIKE HIDE-AND-SEEK,
LEAPFROG, AND DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE.

Farmer hauls his herd back into the barn and issues an ultimatum!

"NO HORSEPLAY!"

But the daytime dallying continues. Farmer's horses are still sleeping on their day jobs, and he is forced to ramp up his surveillance. He locks them in the barn and slips in between a block of sleeping sheep to keep the night watch and sees the horses pull out a deck of cards and some seven-layer dip & chips and proceed to hold 'em and fold 'em in a protracted poker game.

And so the horseplay wars continue.

At last Farmer tethers each horse in his stall, and shuts them inside. He pulls up a bucket, seats himself before the horses, and dares them to dare to play.

"OKAY!
COME ON. MAKE MY DAY!"

There's plenty of farm fun in best-selling author Karma Wilson's latest, Horseplay! (Little, Brown, 2012). With Jim McMullan's charming retro illustrations of the frazzled farmer and his frolicking farm animals, carried along by Wilson's quirky quatrains, the whole thing is a rollicking romp in the hay.

"The mood here is of subversive festivity, with a rolling, melodious pleasure to the words and a gratifying, easy quality to McMullan's artwork," says Kirkus Reviews.

Pair this one with its companion collaboration by Wilson and McMullan, Hogwash! (Wilson, Karma) (Little, Brown, 2011) for more fun down on the farm.

Twister Time: Otis and the Tornado by Loren Long

LIFE WAS CALM ON THE FARM WHERE THE FRIENDLY LITTLE TRACTOR NAMED OTIS LIVED.

IT WAS SUMMER. THE SUN SHINED BRIGHT, THE BIRDS CHIRPED, AND AFTER ALL THE WORK WAS DONE, OTIS AND HIS FRIEND THE LITTLE CALF LIKED TO PLAY.

It is a pastoral paradise for Otis. He loves to do his daily work, and when quitting time on the farm comes around each afternoon, he and his friend chase each other around the meadow to the sound of Otis' cozy putt, puffety chuff. And when the two tire of play, they just sit quietly under a shady tree on the hillside overlooking Mud Pond. Little Calf is his best friend, but Otis is friends with all the farm animals and everyone gets along happily.

All except for one--the huge bull over the hill.

THE BULL WAS NOBODY'S FRIEND.

HE WAS KEPT IN A PEN IN A PASTURE ALL BY HIMSELF.

Snorting and snarling and trampling the field daisies beneath his feet, the bull is the bully of the farm, and none of the animals even venture near his pen. Even gentle Otis' friendly gestures are met with flared nostrils and a riveting roar, so frightful that even the gregarious Otis decides to give him a wide berth.

Then one day dark clouds roll in from the west, obscuring the summer sun, and Otis knows something is very wrong.

THERE WAS SOMETHING DIFFERENT ABOUT THE FARM THAT OTIS COULD FEEL IN HIS PIPES.

IT WAS COMPLETELY STILL. THE ONLY SOUND OTIS HEARD
WAS THE FARMER SHOUTING, "IT'S A TORNADO! IT'S COMING FAST! GET DOWN IN THE CELLAR!"

There's no time for the farmer's family to get the livestock to safety, but Otis knows just what to do. Quickly he unlatches the pasture gate and herds all his friends, even the geese, over the hill, past Mud Pond, and down under the banks of Mud Creek, the lowest part of the whole farm where they can be safe. Otis chuffs a sign of relief. Everyone is saved.

But, no! Otis hears a plaintive roar. It's the bull, still locked in his pen right out in the open, and even his strength can't break that sturdy gate. Otis knows that he is the only one who can help, the only one with the power to free the bull to find shelter with the rest of the animals.

It's a cliffhanger as Otis races through the approaching storm, flattens the gate with his powerful reverse gear, and frees his former foe.

OTIS SHOOK HIMSELF, GAVE THE BULL A FRIENDLY CHUFF, AND PEELED OUT.

THE TORNADO ROARED LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN. OTIS AND THE BULL DIVED FOR COVER INTO MUD CREEK.

THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN, NARROWLY MISSING THEM ALL.

It's Otis the hero once more in Loren Long's latest tractor tale, Otis and the Tornado (Philomel, 2011). As in his 2009 best-seller, Otis, his text and retro-style illustrations evoke the nostalgic mood of such anthropomorphic mechanical heroes as Hardie Gramatky's Little Toot and Virginia Lee Burton's Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, proving that this cozy, comforting story with all its stormy suspense has the right stuff to reassure modern kids that the powers that be are there to take care of things when the going gets rough. The evergreen story of the machine imbued with the virtues of the human heart--empathy and courage--is still a good one to hear, then and now.

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.

The Beat Goes On: Farmyard Beat by Lindsay Craig and Marc Brown

SHEEP CAN'T SLEEP!

SHEEP CAN'T SLEEP!

SHEEP CAN'T SLEEP 'CAUSE THEY'VE GOT THAT BEAT!

The sun goes down, but the animals are all up. Chicks hatch and peep to the beat, waking sheep, who get that beat and tap-tap-tap their feet, waking the cat who... Well, you get the drift in this tale in which cows and farm dogs take up the catchy rhythm and and start to swing that music! Only the owl is supposed to be up at this hour, and he finds the whole jam session a real hoot!

Finally Farmer Sue is up and out to see what's going down (or, in this case, what and who are up!) Shining her lantern on the barn dance, she can't resist joining in.

JIG! JIG!
JIGGETY-JIG!

EVERYONE'S DANCING TO THAT BEAT.

T-I-L-L...
...THEY ALL FALL IN A HEAP.
ASLEEP!

As in their 2010 hit, Dancing Feet!, author Lindsey Craig and best-selling creator of the Arthur series, Marc Brown, have another movin' and groovin' dance number for the preschool group in their latest collaboration, Farmyard Beat. Brown's soft, textured, and beguiling paper collage animals add to the appeal and Craig's rhymes and rhythms offer lots of possibilities for singing and moving actities for preschool groups or individual kids who like to move their feet to the beat.

Handy Farmhand: Farm Dog Martha (Martha Speaks) by Susan Meddaugh

"I am going to LOVE the farm." says Martha.

"I think."

Visiting the farm, Martha imagines herself driving the big red tractor and becoming farmer C.K's all-star farmhand.

But city slicker Martha has a way to go to become a full-fledged farm dog. For openers, she doesn't realize that farm work begins way before the sun does. And she doesn't figure on sharpster sheep, who convince her that the woods (and farmhouse) are all part of their pasture, and conman clucksters in the henhouse who convince her to take a turn sitting on their eggs while they do a bit of free-range R 'n' R elsewhere.

But then a mean-looking gray "dog" drawn by the roaming roosters appears in the pasture with a challenging "Wrooo-oooo-oooooo-oooo!" and it's up to the brave Martha to dispatch the marauding coyote with a few well-chosen Martha moves.

"You're a good farm dog, Martha," says C.K.

As in all of her easy reading books, Susan Meddaugh's Martha Speaks: Farm Dog Martha (Reader) (Green Light Readers; Level 2) (HMH Books, 2010) provides plenty of fun for fans of the PBSKids MARTHA series, based on Susan Meddaugh's ultra-popular Martha picture books. There are some follow-up vocabulary activities included, as well as a link to the PBS web site for more entertaining as well as educational games. For more advanced Martha readers, see also Martha Speaks: Shelter Dog Blues (Chapter Book), in which a lost collar leads our favorite talking dog to an unfortunate incarceration in the pooch slammer, where with typical elan, she organizes a dog rescue of tail-wagging proportions. As always, our Martha speaks for herself!

Dog Days: Funny Farm by Mark Teague

In the spring Cousin Judy, Uncle Earl, and Aunt Josephine met Edward at the station.

It's Edward's first visit to Hawthorne Farm.

City slicker Edward, a portly Boston terrier attired in a dapper gray suit, pristine white shirt and natty red bowtie, arrives for a buccolic visit with his country cousins, in Mark Teague's forthcoming Funny Farm (Orchard Books, 2009), a situation which allows Teague's considerable illustrative skills the opportunity for an, um, field day. Dry, understated, matter-of-fact text accompanies Edward's adventures, as, always attired in suit and bowtie, he attempts to follow his folksy farm family's daily routine, as, for example,

Uncle Earl shows Edward how to milk the cow.

We see Uncle Earl plugging away as he milks his friendly cow. Edward, however, has fallen fully asleep, jaw agape, on a hay bale in the predawn darkness.

Then we see Cousin Judy, taking Edward out to feed the pigs, in which Edward falls into the muck, muddying the considerable seat of his well-tailored pants. Still wearing his suit with the soiled rear, Edward watches ants while Uncle Earl plows, digs holes for Aunt Josephine's garden seedlings, paints the barn messily from the top of a tall ladder, and finds out what sheep herders actually DO with those long crooks. After Cousin Judy gives him an unsuccessful knitting lesson, Edward enthusiastically tucks in to a typical farm dinner, loading his plate with ham, limas, mashed potatoes, molded Jello salad, and other rural treats.

But there's no time for leisure on Hawthorne Farm. After dinner, the family is off to the barn dance, where the pig band plays and Edward and Judy do-si-do energetically, Edward still sporting his suit with the be-mucked rumble seat. Finally the tuckered terrier turns in for a well-needed night's sleep. And that's just his first day at Hawthorne Farm.

If you are familiar with Teague's Dear Mrs. LaRue series, you know that no one does doggy facial expressions better. Here Teague keeps his text spare and understated and lets his illustrations tell the real story, all the better to show off Edward's comic reactions to his agricultural adventures.

No More Moo: Boo-Hoo Moo by Margie Palatini

Margie Palatini's 2007 hit Moo Who? told the funny, punny tale of Hilda MacHeifer, who, struck by a cow pie, suffers temporary amnesia and a pro tem inability to use her proper voice. Her identity crisis results in a hilarious census of her fellow farm animals as she searches for who and what she truly is. At last convinced that she is indeed a cow ("You're no swine. You're bovine."), Hilda finally finds her inner moo and expresses it all too vocally, to the pained but patient and earplugged barnyard audience.

Never one to miss a singular chance for a sequel, Palatini has just published a companion book, Boo-Hoo Moo, in which Hilda MacHeifer has a bit of the blues:

Hilda MacHeifer was down in the dumps.

Feeling low, sounding like it, too.

Even her moo was low. "Mi-mi-moo. Boo-hoo-moo!"

And with a voice as annoying as Hilda's, it's not just MacHeifer who has the miseries. All her barnyard friends are miserable, too, just having to hear her inharmonious heavings. What to do about the boo-hoo-moo?

Finally the cat suggests that perhaps Hilda is just lonesome and opines that a cat-and-cow duet would do it, raising the heifer's spirits. Of course, all the other animals want to get into the act, and the would-be vocalists swell into a chorus of volunteers. An audition is held and soon the whole farm is pulsating with solid walls of sound.

But is Hilda happy to low along? Well, no. It seems Hilda has had a mid-career crisis. "I don't think I can really sing," she admits." No kidding?" says the pig, happily removing his prophylactic earplugs at last.

"It's true. I am definitely not a singer. I have the soul of a dancer.

I'm a heifer who's a hoofer!"

Witty wordplay, funny punning, all-out alliteration, rampant rhyming,and plenty of cracking wise are Palatini's trademarks, and as in her earlier hits Piggie Pie!, Zoom Broom ((The Sequel to Piggie Pie)), Bad Boys, and Bedhead,, this latest offering, abetted by Keith Graves' comedic illustrative style, will appeal especially to older picture book readers whose verbal and visual sophistication will find her humor just to their taste.

Fowl Play: Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri

"When the farmer's away, the fowl will play."

So goes Nancy Tafuri's exuberant new picture book which celebrates the joys of colors--primary and secondary.

Farmer Gray's neat farm is as drab as drab can be: everything is a shade of gray--barn, house, tractor, hills and trees, and and even sky. Something will have to be done!

When he drives away (in gray overalls and in a gray pickup truck), the farmer's foursome of fowl decide it's time for a makeover. Red Hen opens a can of red paint and gets to work on the barn. Yellow Chick dips her brush into her can of signature paint and colors the flowers a sunny yellow. White Duck takes on the picket fence and turns it into a gleaming white, and Blue Goose paints the roof of the house her own hue of blue.

Inspired, the poultry pals branch into the secondary colors. Blue Goose and Red Hen pour together their colors to paint the farmhouse door a pulsating purple. Red Hen and Yellow Chick meld their colors to mix up a bright orange for the shutters, and Blue Goose and Yellow Chick pair their paints to come up with a glowing green for the grass and trees.

Having mastered the primary and secondary colors, Blue Goose and White Duck combine their colors to style a lighter tint of blue for the sky. Here the fowl encounter an issue: they can't leave the sun a humdrum hue, but how do they reach it? At last they fall back on the old pyramid of poultry trick. With Blue Goose anchoring the pillar, Duck, Hen, and Chick ascend in order, and Yellow Chick does solo solar honors with her own can of yellow paint.

Just as Red Hen is slapping a bright coat of red on the tractor, Farmer Gray putters into view. "It's finished!" shout Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick, and White Duck. "SURPRISE!" Farmer Gray, now attired in blue overalls accented by a red bandanna, orange suspenders, and yellow straw hat with purple band, also brings home a new barnyard buddy, Pink Pig. As the sun goes down, Blue Goose turns everything into a deep blue landscape--except, of course, for a full glowing moon.

Just as spring is beginning her touch-up of our drab winter world, Tafuri's illustrations, executed in ink, glowing gouache, and penciled detail, remind us of nature's transformative colors. Beyond the striking individual illustrations, the book itself is artfully designed. Her backgrounds are flat, like coloring book pages waiting to be filled, while her animals are more nuanced, with soft penciled feathers accenting their colors. Most of the pictures show sweeping horizontal double-page landscapes. In contrast, the poultry pyramid is designed as an intriguing double-page vertical spread. Endpapers are a deep blue, and the book's back cover pictures a diagram on how to combine primary colors to make secondary colors, shades, and tints.

For very young children just learning theirs colors or slightly older students beginning to create their own personal palette of colors for art, Tafuri's brand-new Blue Goose is the perfect tool for learning to see color in a new light!

For teachable and printable pages with hands-on opportunities for kids to learn to make colors and use those colors to create their own versions of her illustrations, visit Nancy Tafuri's web site here.