This Is the Farmer

by Nancy Tafuri, Nancy Tafuri (Illustrator)

Overview

Just right for toddlers, an appealing book in which each action propels the next, from a farmer kissing his wife, who then pats the dog, to a cat, a mouse, geese, and a donkey....There's a lot to discover and discuss in these expansive, beautifully observed illustrations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688094683
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/31/1994
Pages:	24
Sales rank:	481,104
Product dimensions:	10.25(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.25(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nancy Tafuri's acclaimed picture books for the youngest child include the Caldecott Honor Book Have You Seen My Duckling?; Spots, Feathers, and Curly Tails; I love you, Little One; and In the Snow, written by Sharon Phillips Denslow. She lives with her family in Roxbury, Connecticut.

Nancy Tafuri's acclaimed picture books for the youngest child include the Caldecott Honor Book Have You Seen My Duckling?; Spots, Feathers, and Curly Tails; I love you, Little One; and In the Snow, written by Sharon Phillips Denslow. She lives with her family in Roxbury, Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

Set in generously sized type, a succinct text shapes a sequence of events into a slice of farm life. Tafuri's ( Have You Seen My Duckling? ) large-scale, elegant illustrations dominate the double-page spreads, with figures often overflowing the pictures' colored borders. The story starts out with the farmer, ``who kisses his wife / who pats the dog / that scratches a flea / that lands on a cat'' and so on, until the conclusion, in which the farmer milks the cow and sends a squirt of milk into the waiting cat's mouth. Rendered in watercolor and ink, the artwork is pleasingly detailed: geese waddle through the barnyard, three kittens examine a ladybug and a brown mouse can be found scampering or hiding on all but the first three spreads. Ages 2-up. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

PreS-K-Tafuri has created yet another exceptional book for young children. Simple in concept, the circular story begins with the declaration that ``This is the farmer,'' showing the man putting on his rubber boots and readying himself for some serious work. The chain of events proceeds quietly at first, but gains momentum as the cat spots the mouse. Eventually the mayhem concludes with the donkey's kick, which opens the gate that the farmer-ignorant of the goings-on-walks through. The mouse, once introduced, is hidden on each of the remaining pages, cleverly enough to engage youngsters in the search. Evoking a similar mood to Tafuri's Early Morning in the Barn (Greenwillow, 1983), the well-defined, watercolor-and-ink double-spread illustrations are once again of the highest quality. The brief story is rhythmic, predictable, and printed in extra-large type. The fine artwork, appealing subject matter, readable text, and large format make This Is the Farmer a hot candidate for story times.-Lee Bock, Brown County Public Libraries, Green Bay, WI

School Library Journal

A farmer's good-morning kiss to his wife sets in motion an amusing chain of events reaching from the kitchen to the barnyard in this lighthearted cumulative tale. All's well that ends well when a donkey's accidental kick opens the gate so that the farmer can enter to milk the patient cow, while an opportunistic cat stands by to catch a stream of milk. Sometimes the causal links in the brief text are thin: the flea's jumping from the dog to the cat is not really a motivation for the cat to chase the mouse. However, once the chase begins, toddlers will be engrossed in the fast-paced story and in trying to spot the perky mouse, which pops up on fences and peers from mounds of straw. Tafuri's delineation of the farmer and his wife is a bit stiff, but the fresh watercolor hues and clear outlines of the graphic style carry the double-page spreads. This diverting romp will be welcome for story hours or for cozy lap-sharing times.

Karen Harvey