18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Animals from Old MacDonald's Farm Come Alive, December 15, 1997
By A Customer
This book for very young children is a presentation of Old Mac Donald's farm animals in delightful colors page after page. Fleming's style of "pulp painting" which she used to create images is very inovative. On each spread is an interesting combination of sculpture, painting and collage using bright colors. Among other natural materials, she used colored cotton pulp, ground coffee, kernels of oats and a piece of burlap potato sack that rendered texture on her artwork that one can almost actually feel and smell! In Barnyard Banter, the cows in the pasture moo, the hens in the henhouse cluck, and the pigs in the wallow muck. While she started the book with familiar animals. Fleming added new animals like the mice in the grain bin that squeak, the peacocks that shriek, the pigeons that coo, the crows that caw and the crickets that chirp. The little readers may have difficulty distiguishing the pigs from the background, but once they find the pigs' eyes and snouts, they will see that the pigs are having fun wallowing in the mud. Adults and kids will have fun sharing this books as they read, play and sing with it. Infants who are attracted with different sounds and voice intonations will be fascinated with the different sounds of the animals, not to mention their bright colors. One-year-olds can start pointing to the animals and later on imitate their sounds. The two's and three's can identify the animals and create their own sounds. Fleming also invites the kids to look for the goose that is hiding among the different animals in each spread. Children between one and two years old ae capable of spotting details and older kids will enjoy looking for partly hidden objects. Fleming made this game more interesting by showing only parts of the goose in some pages. For instance, in one page, only the beak of the goose in showing on the corner of the page. It will also be interesting to see, if the children will notice that a butterfly always hangs around with the goose. Infact, it was the butterfly that sort of provided the prelude and the postlude for the book because it was the only creature in the title page, and at the last page, the butterfly was being chases by the goose. Different kinds of games and activities can be shared between the child and the parent/adult with this book. Fleming's choice of types and size fro her text is also appropriate for the very young readers. Black bold and simple types were used to make it easy for the kids to identify the words or letters. The simple short sentences telling where the animals are located were written on straight lines on the top of the page, but the sounds that they make are written all over, which added interest to the page. The text are interesting and predictable and made use of various letter sound combinations like muck, cluck,moo, coo, caw, haw, squeak and shriek. It will be interesting how kids will react to the words wallow, paddock, hayloft and rafters which may not be common to city children's vocabulary. The bright red color for end pages easily attracts attention and provides a glaring contrast to the sunshiny yellow of the title page and the end page. The book might be too big for small hands but will fit perfectly on adult's lap. The size of the book, the big text and the bright pictures will be good for small group reading. As in other books on farm animals, it will be nice to end the reading with the singing of the old time favorite "Old MacDonald Had a Farm, e-i-e-i-o...
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
abstract delight in the farmyard, June 20, 2001
I love this book--it's beautiful. This book is a delightful romp through the farmyard, with goose leading the way across the pages as she chases a butterfly, causing the ruckus with all the animals. The abstract artwork truly appeals to adults and, therefore, may be too difficult for very young children to comprehend: the pigs in the muck, the kittens in the hayloft, the pigeons in the rafters all might be a little tough for a baby to distinguish. But a parent rereading the book several times in a row will appreciate seeing Fleming's gorgeous art each time. My nine-month-old son reacts to the colors with glee and my imitations of the animals with laughter--this is definitely one of his favorites. I highly recommend this book.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the BEST!!!, April 22, 2002
This review is from: Barnyard Banter Board Book (Board book)
This book is simple yet fantastically fun and educational. My 7 month old loves to hear it and smiles as soon as I begin the first page. He can be in the throws of whaling anytime, anywhere and I begin to recite the rhyming animal noises and he just giggles! It is amazing how such a simple idea, so well written, can bring so much fun! You have to get this one!
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