Both my 4-year-old and 2-year-old love this book. This crazy, mixed up farm kept my girls laughing and giggling the whole time and I especially liked the fun ending. Both the illustrations and story were wonderful.

This wonderful, wacky, delightful work might well be the perfect introduction to absurd humor on a child's level. In a lilting, rhythmic rhyme (just the type young children love), a little farm girl discovers some strange goings on...the horse is in the pigpen! And so it goes all through the farm, as each set of animals is in the wrong place...and the little girl punctuates each discovery with "Heeeeey Ma!"

The illustrations are simply perfect, thanks to the talents of the fabulous Megan Lloyd. My favorites have to be the cat in the duckpond (as if!!) and of course the last and funniest displacement...the cow in the little girl's bed! Even a very young child can laugh at the ridiculous, and this charming book is guaranteed to provide a belly laugh.

A wonderful addition to a child's library. I recommend it highly!

This is the a charming book with georgeous illustrations. The perticaments that this little girl informs her mother about the strange happenings on the farm always starts with, "heeeey Ma........". My kids ages 4 & 8 always giggle when we start a new perticament of, since the bunny is in the cat bed, where is the cat going to go. Linda Williams has done a great job of dublicating the phrase "heeeeey Ma" and getting your child to predict what will happen next. It is quite surprise when you get to the end and Ma straightens up the farm. Look for the mouse!!!!!!!!

Mothers in the Bethlehem manger (cow, hen, ewe, mare) bond in support of expectant mother Mary in the night of Jesus' birth.

Sweet, simple verse is a delightful composition. Nice illustrations, great Xmas read-aloud for ages 3 to 7. But is also very heartwarming to us mothers. Makes a great gift from one mom to another, as it is all about the bond all mothers share.

Nice offshoot of the song "The Friendly Beasts", always a favorite with young children.

Great-grandma Rebecca tells the story of memorable Christmas gift, a gingerbread doll, made for her by her mother during the Great Depression. If you'd like to shift the focus of Christmas from materialism to love, this is THE book to do it. When you read this book, take time to linger over the realistically drawn, detailed illustrations - They are a pleasure in themselves.

This is an absolutely delightful book about how humans speak. It talks about the anatomy and physiology of speech, place and manner of articulation (without ever mentioning those, or any other, technical terms), and discusses why children learning language don't get all sounds right immediately. If you're a linguist, speech therapist, or anything similar, and you have kids, you REALLY want this book.

I am a Kindergarten teacher and would love to have a copy of this book. I would use it as an example for a class big book. The students could use the book's predictable text to make their own class book. Please help if you can.

Mary Neva Hitt Plano, Texas

Eileen Spinelli's Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' is a picture book suitable for reading aloud with older kids. A simple reminder of the true meaning of Thanksgiving is brought to light after a series of mishaps that any busy, modern family can identify with. Spinelli's humor and gentle touch is evident in this story, as it is in her Valentines' Day story, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. Both books are great for storytimes, home and classroom libraries.

This book is about a woman named Rebecca. She hates pumpkins, because when she was little, that is all she ate for a month was pumpkins. Her well planted garden has everything BUT pumpkins. One day, a pumpkin truck went speeding down her road. The truck made a sharp turn and a huge pumpkin fell off the truck, and into her yard. After cleaning it up, Rebecca forgot about the whole incident. The following year during spring, Rebecca went outside to find that the pumpkin smithereens the following year had caused more pumpkins to grow. Soon, a mass amount of pumpkins is growing in Rebecca's yard.

I liked this book because the ending is not what you would expect. To find out what happens to Rebecca, read this book.

A favorite to my 4 year old. Personally, I enjoy the subtle messages it carries that I am sure that he will injoy when he starts reading it for himself. Very humane side that makes it injoyable for me too.

Rebecca Estelle has a problem on her hands. Rebecca Estelle is a white-haired woman who lives with her calico cat Esmeralda. She hates pumpkins because when she was a youngster her family was poor and ALL they had to eat was pumpkins. She doesn't even like to think about them. One day a truck loaded with pumpkins loses a pumpkin that smashes in Rebecca Estelle's yard and sends seeds flying every which way. When plants spring up she refuses to tend to them and just ignores them all summer long. She won't even go over near the space where the pumpkin smashed. In autumn, much to her surprise there is a huge pumpkin patch just filled with beautiful big orange pumpkins. At first she is horrified. There is a SEA of pumpkins! She uses her clever ingeniuity and her practical good sense to figure out a wonderful way to not only use up the pumpkins, but to attract many people to help her share the pumpkins. She ends up with a delightful party atmosphere, sharing a happy Halloween and she patches up her differences with pumpkins. The illustrations are utterly charming, brightly colored and filled with warm and homey country scenes. The feeling of autumn's hazy nostalgia and the wonderful aromas of harvest baking almost leap up out of the pages. Parents will enjoy reading this one every year at Halloween and the kids will love it for years to come.

Although you won't look back at this book as one of childhood's greatest treasures, it is a fun book and really can grab the attention and interest of a whole classroom full of kids (teachers, take the hint).

Also, there's something delightful and mischievous about the illustrations that makes kids keep asking for it again.

My 18 month old loves this story! My "slow" student in class loves this story----read it to the kids with props---someone in the shirt, someone wearing the hat, and someone lifting up a jack-o-lantern! Read it to them just TWICE and see how much they remember and enjoy! A little old lady goes for a walk in the woods and finds the objects of a scarecrow attempting scare her---she persuades the objects to scare the crows out of her cornfield instead! Read it on Halloween day! A must for classroom and at home! Any time of the year!

I use this book with my Kindergarten and First grade students. I have a T-shaped wooden frame that I use with my lesson. I pass out articles of clothing...a pair of boots, a pair of gloves, a shirt, a pair of pants, a top hat and a plastic Jack-0-lantern. I encourage participation, chanting and acting out of the story from the students for each part as we read the book aloud. Finally, I place the items on the wooden frame to make a Scarecrow as the grand finale!!!!! They predict the outcome and enjoy the excitement of discovery as we read the book. It is both scary and fun! This is one book I look forward to reading each year!!!!! My students LOVE it!

I've used this book with first graders when we talk about plant and animal relationships. This book has wonderful pictures to go with the words. The students often stop me to ask me about the pictures. I love how it shows many different ways that plants and animals can "help" each other. I'd highly recommend it!

This is an excellent book for children for learning about the interaction of plants and animals in the Southwestern desert environment. Many multi-disciplinary activities can be developed using this marvelous book!

I love this book. My kids (ages 2 and 4) love this book. Its hard to believe a story with the main character being a cactus could be so beautiful and engaging. But it is. And, at the same time as enjoying the story it teaches the kids about saguaro cacti and desert life. When I first read it I almost cried when the giant 200 year old cactus falls to the ground in a storm.