Synopsis
Using the framework of a traditional nursery song, rhyming text and energetic watercolor illustrations tell the story of a class of very young students preparing for a school play.
Reviews
PreSchool-K?Lucky are the kids in Ms. MacDonald's kindergarten, for she makes learning the joyous experience it can and should be. The rhythm and rhyme of the nursery song relate a class visit to a farm and the follow-up classroom activities that culminate in a performance for family members. The children dance and sing, plan and measure, create and clean up?whole language in a nutshell. As always, Ormerod's drawings capture the personalities and animated exuberance of her characters; 24 multicultural munchkins do their kindergarten thing. Musical scores separate vignettes of action, creating pages that flow with a plethora of details and escapades to talk about and laugh over or, for those who are so inclined, to sing. A winner!?Virginia Opocensky, formerly at Lincoln City Libraries, NE
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ormerod's (Sunshine) buoyant book gives the toe-tapping refrain of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" a bustling classroom setting and inventive, mildly tongue-twisting lyrics. After taking a field trip to a farm, Ms. MacDonald's class "makes some plans" and gets to work, with "A snip snip here and a stitch stitch there,/ Here a snip, there a stitch, everywhere a snip stitch." In constant motion, the children skip, hop, bound and dance across the busy pages, which feature a hand-rendered musical score that, like the text, sometimes sways along with the lissome kids. As teacher and students prepare to stage a show recreating the sights and sounds of their visit to the farm, the costumes, scenery and props introduce splashes of vibrant color to the otherwise pale-toned palette Ormerod uses, convincingly, to convey the relative blandness of everyday classroom life. This contrast loses its subtlety when the curtain finally goes up on the glorious pageant: a turn of the page reveals a panoply of brilliant hues as the kids, costumed as everything from cows to cabbages, spiritedly strut their stuff, alongside lyrics more true to the original song ("An oink oink here and an oink oink there,/ Here a hop, there a waddle, everywhere a quack quack"). A perfect sing-aloud for preschool and early elementary students, who won't?and this is a guarantee?be able to resist joining in. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ms. MacDonald, fashionable in ankle boots and hoop earrings, takes her class of two dozen appealingly diverse children ``down to the farm, E-I-E-I-O.'' Back in the classroom they parade around imitating the farm animals, improvising costumes, and painting scenery, then tidy up and take a nap. Every activity becomes embedded in cumulative verse (``Here a lid, there a wipe, everybody wash hands''), which slows things down at times. But the pace quickens when the children put on a performance for parents, an exuberant song and dance parade that's warmly and amusingly detailed. The original song wins for simple, raucous fun; this version scores for its rendering of energetic children making an eye-filling hubbub. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Ages 4^-7. One day Ms. MacDonald takes her class to a farm, where the children can pick up a lamb, hug a pig, and be chased by geese. On their return, they put together costumes, paint scenery, and come up with an impromptu performance for an audience of their family members. Ormerod has created a class full of different personalities, with some students exuberant and others more retiring, and she skillfully follows each of the 24 individuals through the day, giving readers a chance to pick out a particular child to observe. The text, accompanied by music, is sung to the familiar tune. This is the sort of book that just gets better every time you go through it. Susan Dove Lempke
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