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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607001183808 | Picture Books | CHORAO | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
The little farm by the sea is a bustling place, filled with animals to keep track of and visitors to attend to. All year-round Farmer Brown and his family are busy, cultivating plants in the greenhouse in wintertime, and planting and sowing the harvest in. the warmer months. And finally, when the customers come, the hard work has paid off. There are beautiful flowers to buy, delicious vegetables to eat, and strawberries ripe for the picking.
Kay Chorao lovingly portrays the changing of the seasons on a real family farm where she herself has spent many an afternoon. With a fluid text and warmly detailed art, this simple story celebrates a vanishing way of life that embodies our most long-standing values and traditions.
Author Notes
Kay Chorao is the author of more than seventy books for children, including My Mama Says , The Book of Giving , and Jumpety-Bumpety Hop . Ms. Chorao lives with her husband in New York City, but sps her summers in Jamesport, Long Island, just up the road from the real little farm by the sea.
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2ÄBased on a real establishment on Long Island, NY, this charming book depicts the activities on a small farm throughout the seasons. Chorao's prose is consistently evocative and quiet, and includes familiar and surprising details: "It is still winter. The little farm by the sea looks asleep. The fields are frozen under early morning frost, and the clamshell driveway is quiet." During the colder months, readers witness the chores that are done indoors: milking, feeding barn cats, mixing feed for the pigs. In the spring, the fields are planted, flowers bloom, and customers stop to pick strawberries. Summer brings a litter of pigs and fall means picking apples and taking the prize pumpkin to the county fair. Each season is beautifully illustrated in large, detailed gouache and pen-and-ink paintings that children can pore over, finding the details mentioned in the text, plus many more: cats sleep here and there, pigs cause mischief, and chicks hide in tall grass. The artwork and narrative complement each other well, creating an inviting, informative book.ÄLee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Chorao (Baby's Lap Book) presents an onlooker's view of Long Island, N.Y.'s Smallholdings Farm and those who make it run. Opening in the relatively quiet winter months, the narrative follows Farmer Brown and his family through four seasons, as they care for animals, plant and harvest crops and market their bounty in both their "selling room" and roadside stand. While intently focused on these activities, both text and art keep the Browns oddly at bay (for example, the author never names the children; instead she refers to them quite formally as "one of the Brown daughters" or "the Brown children"). A rare moment of levity occurs when four piglets escape from their pen, overturning cartons of produce and sending eggs flying. More compelling than her words, Chorao's sprawling, good-humored illustrations gracefully depict the colors and signs of the changing seasons. Rendered in gouache and pen-and-ink, the art also contains some images certain to appeal to children, including endearing glimpses of animal mothers and their babies snoozing in unexpected spots. Any youngster interested in a realistic picture of a working farm will find much of interest in these pages. Ages 4-9. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved