How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm? Dojo Daytrip by Chris Tougas

WITH MASTER LEADING, ARM IN ARM,

NINJAS LEAVE THE BUS TO TOUR THE FARM.

The six little black-hooded ninjas are up for a fun field trip to the farm.  Master is into the spirit of the day, too--all decked out in his straw hat and cowboy boots and ready to show off his agricultural acumen for his little students.

But best laid plans of mice and master go astray!

YIKES! YEE-0W!

With the ninjas perched on the pigpen fence, Master strides manfully with a bucket of swill toward the sow, slips on a banana peel, and lands, slop and all, in the trough.

The little students find it amazing and work off their excitement by letting the chicks loose and breaking a few boards in the fence with karate kicks! Then, leaving Master to struggle out of the slop, they scamper off to climb ropes and hide among the hay bales in the barn.

Master tries to carry on with his lesson in milking the cow. But the bull seems to be a bit possessive about Daisy!

YIKES! YEE-0W!
MASTER FLEES THE RED BARN, RACING
FROM A BULL THAT'S CHARGING, CHASING
NINJAS CHASE EACH OTHER, TOO,
MAKING HORNS AND YELLING, MOO!

Master goes up a tree, at bay, until at last the bull goes away. Courageously, he climbs down and presses on with his lesson plan--hitching the horse up to pull the plow!

But the plowhorse spooks and drags Master, still hanging onto the plow, through the sod. The little ninjas are enthralled with the excitement of the moment. But, wait.

What would a good ninja do?

THE NINJAS ALL FORGOT THEIR CREED: ALWAYS HELP SOME ONE IN NEED!

The six ninja kids go into action. They jump onto the runaway horse and make him whoa. They rescue Master and help him recover. And then they leap into action, repairing the fences, refilling the trough, milking the cow, and giving the plot a good plowing. They even repaint the barn. The barnyard is restored to perfect order.

THE LITTLE NINJAS GIVE A BOW.

MASTER BOWS AND WHISPERS... WOW!

All's well as Master and students board their van and head back to the daycare center. But... what's that critter with the big horns doing in the back of the dojo bus?

It's Yikes! Yee-Ow! all over again as the dojo bus bounces back down the road, in Chris Tougas' Dojo Daytrip (Owlkids Books, 2015). Field trip stories usually involve some sort of hi-jinks among the day trippers, and it seems little ninjas are no different. Tougas' digitally generated cartoon ninjas go right along with the slapstick script, with liberated chicks everywhere, pratfalls in the pigpen, and considerable hazard to the seat of Master's pants in the plot. But this tale is saved from total silliness by the repetition of the dojo creed: Always help someone in need, and kids will soon take up the refrain... Yikes! Yee-Ow!

Pair this one with its predecessor, Dojo Daycare or N. D. Wilson's Ninja Boy Goes to School (review here).

"Where Everyone Is Sleeping:" Go to Sleep, Little Farm by Mary Lynn Ray

SOMEWHERE A BEAVER WEAVES A BED IN A BOG.

SOMEWHERE A BEAR FINDS A BED IN A LOG.

NOW THAT THE DAY AND SUN HAVE GONE,

QUIET SPREADS AND EVENING COMES ON.

As the sunset fades to a blue twilight and deep blue night, a girl inside the farmhouse prepares to sleep, yawning a small yawn, tunneling under her covers as snug as the bear in his log. As woolly sheep sleep in their snug barn, and bees bed down deep in a rose, as tomorrow's minutes sleep in the old clock, as bedtime tales sleep inside their covers, the little girl closes her eyes. Even the worms in their holes snore little snores, zzzzzz.

Mary Lynn Ray's Go to Sleep, Little Farm (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) uses the subtle art of suggestion that all the world is sleeping to lure young listeners or readers to do likewise. As Dad switches off all the house lights and even her pocket falls asleep in her skirt, surely it is time for our girl to dream away the night. Ray's soporific couplets soothe the ear, as artist Christopher Silas Neal's pleasantly old fashioned illustrations in muted grays and blues set the scene for all eyes to close all on their own in this quiet bedtime story that mirrors all the world preparing to sleep in one small bed in one cozy room in a sleeping farmhouse.

"Ray's lullaby reads like a sequel to Goodnight, Moon, with the same offbeat humor and incantatory language extending to the farm and the forest beyond it," says Publishers Weekly in their starred review.

A Farmer and a Clown Have A Very Good Day: The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee

In a landscape surrounded by a whole lot of nothing, an angular farmer is grimly spearing some hay bales with his pitchfork, when out of the corner of his eye, he sees something colorful in motion.

It is a circus train in the distance, and as it bounces over the plains, he see something (someone?) fall from the caboose.

He hurries toward the place and sees that it's a little clown, in a red suit, peaked cap, with a big clown smile.

What to do? The farmer leads the little one toward the farmhouse, shows the small clown how to wash up, and gives him some dinner. With his big red smile washed away, the little clown looks small and sad, so the farmer tries to coax a small smile with some hat tricks with his wide black hat.

The next day the farmer sets off with the little clown on his shoulders. Together they milk the cow and feed the chickens, and the farmer shows off again, juggling the eggs from their nests, as the little guy laughs. They take a picnic out on the prairie and have a fine time together.

But then they hear a sound:

TOOT! TOOT! TOOT!

The circus train has come back for the little clown! The clown family on the train waves happily, and the little clown jumps for joy to see them. But then, he turns to the tall farmer and, wrapping his arms around the farmer, hugs him tightly. The farmer gives him a kiss and a wave, but the little clown has something else he wants to do: he gives the farmer his tall red hat, and the farmer gives him his wide black hat as a remembrance as well, and the farmer, wearing the red cap, begins the long walk back--alone again. Or is he?

Marla Frazee's newest, The Farmer and the Clown (Beach Lane, 2014), is a wordless picture book that says a lot. In a still, dun-colored landscape, a bit of life and color comes into the old farmer's world and leaves him changed. Frazee's two characters, small in the perspective of an endless "greige" landscape, speak multitudes about loneliness and longing. Multiple Caldecott honors (for All the World and A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever) testify to Frazee's mastery of a variety of styles to say a lot with a little. Sharp-eyed "readers" will spot a surprise for the farmer when he looks back that forecasts some fun ahead, a wry touch that ends this book on the upbeat.

New York Times reviewer and author Grace Lin says, "An artist of a wordless picture book must be meticulous, carefully using the tools of color and composition to elicit an emotional experience just as a poet uses words. Marla Frazee's The Farmer and the Clown accomplishes this lofty goal beautifully…the entire book, with Frazee's perfect pacing of images and use of negative space, light and shadow, is true poetry."

In the Stable: An Otis Christmas by Loren Long

IT WAS WINTER TIME ON THE FARM, WHERE THE FRIENDLY LITTLE TRACTOR NAMED OTIS LIVED.

SNOW COVERED THE HILLS, CHURCH BELLS RANG THROUGH THE COLD WINTRY VALLEY, AND CHRISTMAS WAS ALMOST HERE.

And to make things perfect, the farmer gives Otis his Christmas present, a shiny brass horn, early on Christmas Eve. Now Otis has a horn just like his friend the truck. Chuff chuff puff puttedy beep beep HONK!

It's a perfect Christmas Eve, until Otis wakes in the middle of the night to hear voices from the mare's stall near where he is parked. She is expecting a foal and things are not going well:

"WE NEED DOC BAKER!"

The roads are too drifted and icy for the truck to go for the doctor. Otis knows that only he can make it through the woods to Doc Baker's house and get him back to the barn in time to save the mare and her foal.

After many snowdrifts to overcome and a perilous slippery slope along the way, the little tractor finally puffs up at the good doctor's darkened house. Otis revs his engine and flashes his lights desperately. But there is no reaction from Doc Baker, still sleeping inside.

And then, just in time, Otis remembers his new horn, in Loren Long's latest tale of his doughty little tractor, An Otis Christmas (Philomel, 2013). Long's mega-charming artwork, with his palette of midwinter blues and the little tractor's old-fashioned, faded red and cream paint, lights up this familiar plotline with a fond glow that warms even the old barn with a Christmas radiance, as the new Christmas foal, with a white star on its forehead, watches the sun come up with his mother and Otis on Christmas Day.

Long's other Otis stories include Otis, Otis and the Puppy, and Otis and the Tornado. (See reviews here.)