6 Sweet Picture Books About Farms!

Farm, by Elisha Cooper
If you really want to know what life on a farm is like, this is the book for you. The beautiful watercolor illustrations detail every element of farm life, from feeding cattle, to harvesting crops, to the poetic descriptions of an ordinary farm day. “The barn smells of hay and manure and engine grease. It smells of dust.” Close your eyes and you can almost imagine you’re there!

Big Red Barn, by Margaret Wise Brown and Felicia Bond
Margaret Wise Brown is responsible for so many iconic and timeless children’s stories (take Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny for starters) and this classic farm life tale is no exception! In the big red barn you’ll find a pink pig, big and little horses, sheep, donkeys, and many more barnyard animals. This story shows what the animals do when the children are away: “Play all day in the grass and the hay!”

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
This adorable book is a funny and unexpected twist to the more traditional farmyard tale. Farmer Brown has a unique problem with his cows—they like to type. (Hence, Click, Clack, Moo!) What happens when his super-advanced cows start to type him notes on the old typewriter? Hilarity, and a worker’s strike, ensue!

On the Farm, by David Elliott and Holly Meade  
This one is a fun book to read out loud. Its simple pleasing rhyming scheme is paired with bold, attention-holding illustrations by Caldecott Honor-winner Holly Meade. We get a look into the lives of all the farm animals, from the trash eating billy goats to the squawking hens, quacking ducks, and honking geese. Seems like life on the farm is anything but serene!

Color Farm, by Lois Ehlert
This brightly illustrated book composed of blocks of red, orange, green, and blues is perfect for your littlest farmhands. The cleverly cut out shapes (squares, hexagons, circles, etc.) reveal all the different animals like chickens, cows, and pigs. Your young reader will be amazed at how Lois Ehlert can create so many different animals from these simple shapes, and hopefully will also be inspired to make their own!

Down By the Barn, by Will Hillenbrand
This fun book (and follow up to the popular Down by the Station) has a catchy refrain that will have your young readers reading (and perhaps even singing) along as the tractor drives through the farm picking up various animals along the way. “Puff, puff, click, clank, moo, moo, peep, peep, wee, wee, OFF WE GO!”