Over in the Meadow - Hardcover

3.88

42 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1897066082 ISBN 13: 9781897066089

Publisher: Owlkids, 2004

Jan Thornhill's trademark ingenuity brings this well-loved 19th century rhyme to a new audience in a captivating and original way.
Jan has created a magical imaginary world made up of everyday objects: A forest of broccoli, a beaver dam of pretzels, a dragonfly with paperclip wings... Who could have thought berries, twist-ties, light bulbs, garden gloves, and rubber bands could be transformed into such unimagined delights?
As always with Jan Thornhill's books, young readers can pore for hours over the intricacies of a seemingly simple story. Not only will they learn about counting, rhyming, animals, and nature, but kids will also delight in picking out recognizable everyday objects used in ingenious new ways in the illustrations on these pages. Pages at the back of the book show the original elements used in the creation of the illustrations—readers can then go back and play eye-spy.
Hand-drawn text with some rebus elements help the youngest reader to learn and delight in words. Ten spreads show different parts of the meadow and introduce a different animal and a new action verb.

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About the Author:

Jan Thornhill is an award-winning writer and illustrator who has always had a strong interest in nature and the environment. Several of her books have been translated into different languages and published in countries around the world. Her books include the Governor General's Award-nominated The Wildlife ABC and The Wildlife 123 and the NAPPA Gold Award-winning I Found a Dead Bird. She lives in Havelock, ON.

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2 - A surprisingly fresh and original take on an old favorite. The illustrations were "created on a computer using photographs of everyday objects" and nothing in this jump-out-at-you, colorful book is what it seems. Distant trees are made from broccoli, a nest is constructed out of shoelaces, butterflies have wings made from leaves and decorated with fried eggs, and a beaver dam is built out of pretzels. Like the "I Spy" books (Scholastic), this is a rainy-day, snowy-day, everyday book that young readers will love poring over. The page layout includes a bright bubble floating on one side with the text in a creative, multicolored font. The author takes a few liberties with the traditional verses, e.g., "Over in the meadow/by a cozy wee den,/ Lived an old mother beaver/and her little beavers ten./ 'Beave!' said the mother./ 'We beave!' said the 10./So they beaved all day/by their cozy wee den." Children will be too busy looking at the pictures to worry too much about what "beaving" is. To avoid the inevitable quarrels over what's a lime and what's an avocado, Thornhill provides clues on the final pages with photos and identifications of the items used. Youngsters will find it impossible to peel their eyes off the pages of this imaginative book. - Susan Weitz, Spencer-Van Etten Schools, Spencer, NY
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