What About Emma [Paperback]

Ken Rush (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996 | Age Level: 4 and up

Sue's family is quitting the dairy business, so they sell all the cows except Emma, Sue's favorite, because she is going to have a calf soon.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3?Two farm children are worried: what will happen to Emma, their favorite Brown Swiss cow, when the herd is sold? When Dad decides to keep her "...just until she calves," there is a several month reprieve, during which Sue, the young narrator, spends lots of time with Emma and even learns to ride her like a trail horse. Rush's writing is spare and well paced, moving to a dramatic rescue during a snowstorm. The artist's panoramic double-page oil paintings are uncluttered and richly, if somberly, hued. Appropriately, the brightest colors in the book appear in a dream scene on the final page: Emma and her calf are grazing contentedly in a green pasture on the family farm. There's hope that the children's parents just might decide to keep the two cows. Details of a modern dairy farm on which the children are actively involved are well researched and presented, while the grim economic reality that forces the selling of the herd provides a realistic, but not overpowering, background. The story might stretch a bit in the middle, but it is very satisfying overall.?Lee Bock, Brown County Public Libraries, Green Bay, WI
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 4^-8. A small girl tells of her farm family, which has fallen on hard times. Mom and Dad must take outside jobs; they can't afford to run their dairy farm anymore and have to sell off their cows. But, at least for the present, Sue's father allows her to keep Emma, her favorite cow, who is going to calve. Rush's double-page oil paintings in warm shades of brown show the sturdy, bespectacled girl in the empty barn as the cattle trucks take the cows away, but other pictures show her romping with her brother and riding on Emma's back in the hills around the farm. In the end there's the birth drama: Emma escapes from the barn in a snowstorm, Sue finds her and rides her home, and the whole family helps when the calf is born. The telling is quiet, and the paintings are strong; together they express the roots of the family in the place they love. Hazel Rochman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531095347
• ISBN-13: 978-0531095348
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,473,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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