Then he decides to get a chicken, who ends up being brilliant and helps him build his farm.Ī sustainability take on the old nursery rhyme, this humorous go-round places the Little Red Hen in the role of consultant to Old MacDonald. He begins by getting a goat to eat the grass, but he just ends up eating his hedges. The story follows Old MacDonald as he decides to build a farm in his yard because he is tired of mowing his lawn.
Theme(s): Animals, Rhyming, Nursery Rhyme, Gardening This book is so delightfully earthy-crunchy west coast, I can hardly stand it.īy the way, this is my front yard, about 9 months after buying a house that had a beautiful, immaculate lawn: Let's go straight to the pay-off where all the neighbors are happy to buy organic produce from Old MacDonald's horse-drawn food cart.
I'll also skip the bit where Old MacDonald and his growing band of supporters installs raised bed and plants a lovely variety of fruits, vegetables, etc. Then, look, super-cute worms for the compost pile! I'll let you discover those wonderful illustrations for yourself. Of course, haters gotta hate and all that, so the neighbors aren't exactly happy about these changes at Old MacDonald's (except that cute little girl in front, who's very progressive for this 'hood).īut if they thought MUD was bad, the compost and horse manure that Old MacDonald introduces next is really going to get their goat. And I see this chicken, with her qualifications and resources, as a bit of a Mary Poppins figure. Now, there's not any real explanation for why he got a chicken, other than "the plot began to thicken," but really, who doesn't want a chicken? Or three?Īlso, most people start with chicks, but apparently, Old MacDonald didn't want to wait a couple of months for her to grow up. Then, he got on the internets and bought a chicken. Old MacDonald did not actually buy a farm, folks! He actually started out in the 'burbs.īut mowing is so boring, so he he got a goat to do that job for him. Hippies of the world, rejoice! Judy Sierra (an Oregon native, of course) has written a book about getting rid of the lawn and putting in an urban farm! And it's set to a familiar song! And it has a sense of humor! I divide my writing time between children's books and a long term project on folktales, grandmothers and cultural evolution. I can do that! My first children's books were adaptations of folktales, and soon, I was able to incorporate my lifelong habit of writing poetry into my work.Ĭurrently (2018), I live in Portland, Oregon, with my husband. A puppet theater is also a small theater, I thought. While I was a student there, I attended a talk by the author-illustrator Uri Shulevitz, and heard him say that a picture book is like a small theater.
I became so fascinated by the power of ancient myth and folktale to engage a modern audience that I enrolled in the Folklore and Mythology Program at UCLA, where I received my Ph.D. After attending a workshop on Balinese shadow puppetry, we traveled to Bali and Java to learn ancient techniques from modern masters, and we adapted material from American folklore to the shadow screen. We began performing on the streets of San Francisco, at Renaissance fairs, and at schools. When I teamed up with a puppeteer, Bob Kaminski (my husband), I was able to bring my cloth creations to life. Out of college I did temporary work in offices and libraries, while at night, I wrote poetry and made strange life forms from cloth. I took a roundabout path to becoming a children's author.
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