April Foolishness - Hardcover

Bateman, Teresa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807504041 ISBN 13: 9780807504048

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 2004

Synopsis

It's a spring morning on the farm. Grandpa is fixing breakfast for his visiting grandkids. Suddenly his grandson reports that the cows have got loose! He thinks Big Brown Bessie just stepped on a goose!

About this title

About the Authors

Teresa Bateman has won both the Storytelling World Award and the Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award. Her books include Traveling Tom and the Leprechaun, which Booklist called "an enjoyable tale, touched with wit and irony." She lives in Tacoma, Washington.

Nadine Bernard Westcott is the illustrator of many popular books for children.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 2–Family pranks highlight the gentle, teasing relationships in this amusing tale. Grandpa thinks he's wise to his grandchildren's April Fools' Day tricks and ignores their warnings of animals run amok. According to the children, cows, chickens, goats, and sheep are running wild in a glorious celebration of freedom while calm, collected Grandpa methodically cooks his breakfast. Grandma joins in with a hoax of her own to cap the morning. Cartoon artwork closely follows the action as the disarray grows, drawing readers into Grandpa's imagination and disbelief. Bold watercolors, punctuated by ink detail, frame the animals' frolic as described in the rhyming verse. Wake up a storytime about farm life or save this one for April foolishness.–Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX
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*Starred Review* K-Gr. 2. The writer and illustrator of Farm Flu (2001) join forces for a new farm story. This one celebrates April Fool's Day with a suitable "gotcha" ending and plenty of fun along the way. Visiting their grandparents' farm, two children take turns running indoors to tell their grandpa of a string of catastrophes: the cows are loose, the pigs broke the gate, the goats are stampeding. Grandpa greets each revelation with remarkable equanimity and continues to fix his breakfast. When he confides to Grandma that the kids' news bulletins are April foolery, she tells him that April Fool's Day is tomorrow, setting him up to fall for their pranks. Though picture-book creators are often warned against writing in rhymed couplets--and for good reason--Bateman's verse prances along in a pleasing way, never sounding a false note or tripping over its metric feet. Bright with colorful washes, Westcott's ink drawings illustrate the action with equal lightness and grace. Older children may observe parallels between the children's tales and Grandpa's actions. When told that the pigs are loose, he reaches for the bacon. Hearing of the sheep's escape, he pulls on his wool sweater. Zany and inventive, the artwork amplifies the story's humor. A great choice for storytime on April Fool's Day or anytime. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807504041
• ISBN 13: 9780807504048
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Westcott Nadine Bernard
• Number of pages: 32