E-I-E-I-O How Old MacDonald Got His Farm (with a Little Help From a Hen)

Starred review from November 18, 2013
Like his neighbors, this Old MacDonald has a high-maintenance lawn: “MacDonald said, ‘I love my yard,/ but mowing grass is mighty hard.’ ” Enter a remarkable red hen, who is a horticultural expert (her “Resume of Horticultural Fowlishness” includes a stint at Versailles) with a plan for turning the backyard into a low-impact, high-yield organic garden. Old MacDonald’s neighbors need some convincing—in fact, they organize a NIMBY protest against the garden’s
unsightly mud and smelly natural fertilizers (“A LAWN IN EVERY YARD” and CHANGE IS BAD” read protestors’ signs). But soon enough, nearly everyone either has the gardening bug or is saying, “ ‘Mac sure is smart,’/ as they bought fresh food from his garden cart.” Sierra (Wild About You!) has written an ingenious parable that’s ripped-from-the-headlines (or HGTV), and she has a two-peas-in-a-pod partnership with Myers, whose sculptural pictures and sly comedy add just the right amount of visual extravagance. Close readers will also be rewarded with manure jokes and a new meaning for Old MacDonald’s vowel-heavy refrain: “Enjoy It! Everything Is Organic!” Ages 4–8. Illustrator’s agent: Steven Malk, Writers House.

February 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 2-Most children know about Old MacDonald and his animals, but did they ever wonder how he got that farm? Sierra imagines a rollicking suburban scenario that starts when MacDonald gets tired of mowing the lawn and begins to seek out creative alternatives. A grass-nibbling goat is joined by the "smartest hen in history," and the fun begins. The lawn is covered with cardboard and dirt, a horse arrives to help create compost, and the seeds of the farm are planted. Myers's illustrations capture the fun with expressive animals and grumpy, bow-tied neighbors. This title offers a great way to extend the song into a lesson about the plant cycle and suburban farming. An excellent purchase for general collections as well as curriculum support.-Martha Link Yesowitch, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2013
In this rhymed caper, Old MacDonald has a house--and a high-maintenance lawn that's ripe for change. His new goat prefers the hedges to the lawn, so Old Mac acquires a chicken. "Not your average bird was she, / but the smartest hen in history." Little Red directs Mac through a backyard transformation that includes sheet mulching, composting, manuring (Mac gets a horse), vermicomposting (via a worm bin) and raised-bed gardening. The farmer-in-training takes flak from suburban neighbors outraged about the mud and stink that mark the transition from lawn to full-fledged minifarm. Soon, though, they're gladly buying veggies, goat cheese and honey from "Mac and Red's Homemade Farm" and eggs from their "Co-op Coop." Myers' inventive acrylic-on-illustration board paintings add a bushel of laugh-out-loud details, from documents attesting to Red's impressive horticultural credentials to an in-your-face depiction of horse poop. (The artist takes "square-jawed" to a new dimension to depict Old Mac.) In one scene, healthy root veggies commingle with worms in three-quarters of the picture plane, while aboveground, Mac chats up an appreciative letter carrier. Bits of Sierra's text can be sung to the familiar tune, rendering this a good choice for spring storytimes and family read-alouds. Sierra's upbeat look at small-scale local farming, fulsomely fertilized by Myers, yields a harvest of good fun. (Picture book. 4-8)

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February 1, 2014
Preschool-G A sustainability take on the old nursery rhyme, this humorous go-round places the Little Red Hen in the role of consultant to Old MacDonald. Sierra quickly veers from the original situationhere, MacDonald only has a suburban yard. And he's sick of mowing it. So he gets a goat, but the goat just grazes. He goes online to get a chicken and ends up with the world's smartest chicken, the Little Red Hen, who tells him he'll never have to mow again if he just follows her instructions. The yard is covered in cardboard, paper, and, dirt and gets extremely muddy, which leads to a neighborhood protest. When the hen and MacDonald bring in manure to build a worm farm, the protests escalate. At last, though, the once-useless plot of grass has been transformed into a local farm, everyone rejoices, and MacDonald has become a true farmer. Myers' acrylic-and-oil illustrations are eye-popping, with wildly exaggerated faces and bodies. A fun twist on an old favorite.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
Who knew that Old MacDonald's farm started with a lawnmower-replacing (but hedge-eating) goat and "the smartest hen in history"? Using catchy rhymes and cartoon-silly illustrations (neighbors' protest signs include "Grass smells better" and "This is still weird"), the cheerful book chronicles how Mac transformed his suburban backyard into a garden through composting and became the proprietor of an organic produce cart.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)