Customer Reviews

Barnyard Banter

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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...

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.

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!

It's a back-handed compliment, to say the least, to mention that every time I read a new Denise Fleming book I'm shocked by how much I enjoy reading it. When I haven't perused a Fleming creation in a while, I have a nasty tendency to lump her in with fellow author/illustrators Lois Ehlert or Eric Carle. But Fleming has something those two will never have. A keen sense of what makes a colored cotton pulp illustration funny. Ever since I first laid eyes on her clever "Lunch" (a title I highly recommend) I became a real fan. And with "Barnyard Banter", I can clearly state that this is a children's picture book writer with a highly entertaining gaggle of tricks up her sleeve.

This is a book that initially seems to be best categorized as one of those baryard sound titles. The first two-page spread shows a three cow herd of red-eyed (some might say demonic) heifers accompanied by the words, "Cows in the pasture, moo, moo, moo". On the next page are two strutting birds with a, "Roosters in the barnyard, cocka-doodle-doo". You get the idea. Each two-page spread rhymes with the next, which makes for some creative stretches on the part of the author (apparently frogs say "burp burp burp"). As this jouncy book continues, once in a while the words, "But where's Goose?" appear in a corner. The goose, for its part, actually appears in every single animal's spotlight in some way. When we're viewing pigeons in the rafters, goose is far below perpetually chasing an elusive butterfly. When we're amidst the crows of the cornfield, the goose's beak peeks out from the lower right-hand side, stretching towards the flutterby above. This means that kids can have a lot of fun going through the book and finding that semi-obsessive goosey.

The words of the book are catchy, especially in a section that is simply every three-letter animal cry we've read combined into a bouncy rhythmic poem. So points should be given for the kind of text that gets little pre-schoolers involved (any book you can sing to usually falls into that category). But many a slap-happy sing-n-dance text has been brought low by dull colorless or otherwise blah illustrations. Not so here. Using her customary technique of (and I'm quoting the book jacket here), "pouring colored cotton pulp through hand-cut stencils" in a method described as "pulp painting", this book's a ribald explosion of color and form. Though you'd swear, just glancing at it, that this was yet another cut paper picture book, closer inspection reveals the complicated process that "Barnyard Banter" required. You've got coffee grounds for soil! You've got kernels of oats for grain bins! You've even got portions of burlap sacks disguised as chicken-wire fences. And the colors... oh the colors. Part of my love for Fleming's other book, "Lunch" was due to her firm grasp of the primaries. That love can now be transferred to this book as well. The whole tale's awash in bright clear-cut images that could easily leave you blinking your eyes from sunspots.

Whether you're searching for a book that follows the whole "the <enter obligatory farm animal here> says" genre, or you want a book that uses rhythm in a novel way, or even if you just want a story where kids can locate an elusive naughty animal, "Barnyard Banter" fulfills all these needs and more. I tip my hat to Denise Fleming and promise her that I will never ever ever confuse her again with Lois Ehlert. Ever. In fact I'll do more than that. I'll remember how much I like Fleming's books and recommend them to all I see. That, I feel, is a perfectly appropriate penance. And one that I am not the least bit reluctant about carrying out.

This is one of my toddlers favorite books. She loves the rhyming and the colors on the book and will ask us to read it over and over to her. Simply one of the best books to teach barnyard animals and their sounds to your children. I can't say enough praise about this book and how much my daughter loves it!!

My sixteen month old absolutely loves this book. He looks for the goose on every page and his vocabulary has grown bc he pays close attention, due to the limited text and high interest artwork. He has also learned to mimic many animal noises from our reading and rereading. This is a book he repeatedly asks for every day. And it's the book that finally got him interested in something other than cars and trucks! I also really enjoy reading this book to him. When you are a tired mama it's nice to have a fun light book that your baby is totally into :)

My son, even at just 4.5 months, loves the rhyming text and fun pictures in this book. He kicks his feet with excitement when I bring this one out to read. I really appreciate that it's not yet another barnyard animals book. The book includes peacocks, crickets, mice, and crows in addition to some of the more traditional animals (cows, hens, etc.). It's easy to read and the addition of the goose on each set of pages will make it a fun read for my little guy even when he's older--pointing out where the goose is. I would recommend this even for people with infants as the text and pictures can hold even a little one's attention.

We live in the country, which means that when we go anywhere, it takes a while in the car. My baby son gets grumpy after time, so on longer trips my husband drives and I sit in the back and entertain our boy. I sing; we play with toys; and I read him books.

We keep this book in the car, and it's ALWAYS a winner when he's become very cranky. He loves hearing me make the funny different noises and appears to love the bright illustrations as well. We read it over and over again, and he always smiles or laughs when I make a loud "HONK HONK HONK" for goose at the end. It's a great book for bringing out a parent's goofy side too!

With its large and colorful pictures, my son who is almost 4 months enjoys whenever I read this book to him. Also, the sounds of various animals when read out loud appear to keep the baby interested.

This is a lovely book and I especially loved the big book format that it came in. A fun story for the little ones.