Those Calculating Crows

The concept of mathematics is presented in a series of simple arithmetic problems and the enjoyable tale of Farmer Roy and his battle to rid his farm of a flock of pesky crows who are ruining his potentially successful corn crop.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Wakefield bases this tale on "an experiment some hunters conducted many years ago," which seems to show that crows can count up to seven. A farmer is trying to get rid of a flock of crows that has been raiding his corn patch. His efforts to scare them off have all been foiled by the clever birds. On successive pages, a progression of people enter a shed, and all but one leave. The crows wait to return until the last person vacates the shed-until they lose count. The author tries to dress up this repetitive story (the same sequence of events for each new person added to the group) with a singsong counting refrain, but the whole idea is forced and pretty uninteresting. The bold, stylized illustrations are lively and colorful, but don't raise this selection above the prosaic.
JoAnn Rees, Sunnyvale Public Library, CA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hale's (Juan Bobo and the Pig) witty gouaches are all but wasted on this faltering tale, allegedly based on an experiment proving that crows can count up to seven. This premise, explained only in a prefatory note, serves as a shaky foundation for a story about a farmer trying to outwit a flock of impertinent crows that are consuming his newly sprouted corn. The farmer, Roy, plans to chase the crows out of his fields and hide in a shed until they return, at which point he'll fire his gun into the air and scare away the brazen birds for good. Alas, the shrewd crew stays away until Roy returns home. He brings in more people, one by one, to wait with him in the shed, but the calculating crows realize each time that one more person has entered than left the shed... until the number reaches eight. Repetitious and often confusing, the text revolves around a grating cumulative rhyme ("Crows are not dumb, they count to ONE. It must be true, a few count to TWO...). Hale gamely supplies comic crow's-eye perspectives on the baffled humans as well as a handful of visual riffs depicting the birds learning math in a classroom and applying their number skills to playing poker and pool and trading on a crow-crowded stock exchange floor. Imaginative as these vignettes are, however, they add another distraction to an already circuitous story. Whatever subtraction lesson may be intended here ends up in the negative column. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A captivating counting book that relies on a riddle to keep children interested while they learn some math. Farmer Roy is determined to scare away the crows that are eating his sweet corn sprouts. With friends and family he embarks on a complicated game of musical chairs, trying to fool the crows into thinking that no one is watching the cornfield. Somehow the crows outsmart Roy, figuring out that he is hiding in the toolshed, ready to scare them away. Young readers have to figure out how the crows know Farmer Roy waiting for them, a puzzle that requires them to do some arithmetic. Based on an experiment that determined crows could count, this tale will have readers as baffled as Roy is, and just as satisfied when he sends off a few warning shots into the sky, scaring those calculating crows off for good. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 5^-7. As soon as Farmer Roy's sweet corn sprouts, some pesky crows appear, ready to chow down. Roy hides in the toolshed, hoping to eliminate a few, but the birds outsmart him by waiting until he leaves. Next, Roy and his wife, Dot, both walk to the shed, assuming the crows will return as soon as Dot leaves. Again the clever creatures outwit Roy, forcing him to enlist the help of friends and neighbors in determining how high the birds can count. Wakefield's droll text, based on a real experiment (which proved that crows can count as high as seven), will amuse young listeners, especially those just learning about subtraction. Hale's brightly colored gouache illustrations show the crows participating in sophisticated tasks--playing poker, shooting billiards, trading futures, and piloting a spaceship. Story hour listeners will enjoy responding with the cumulative counting rhyme, and teachers will find this a clever addition to math and science lessons. Kay Weisman