Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm

goood

I gave this book to my grandson and his mommy. She and I used to read this when she was little and we love the art work. The story is very clever and the humor is enjoyable for both kids and adults.

This book does not really have a story as such; it is more a commentary about the farm that the author lived on. However it has nice humour as she descibes the characters of the different animals. My 2 year old went through a phase of asking for it night after night as a bed-time read. The illustrations are simple but fun. It is set on an american farm and talks about the wild animals around the farm as well such as raccoons. It does mention a couple of dogs being put down for misbehaviour but handles this in a sensitive way.

A few years from now, we plan on moving from the city to the country, and so in the interim I am trying to teach my children something of farm life. I bought Our Animal Friends and Maple Hill Farm to read with my 4 year-old son. I was not disappointed in this book.The water colour illustrations are not the most attractive I've seen--which is why I gave four stars only--but other than that, the book is a delight. The authors go into great detail describing all the different animals on their farm, explaining their individual quirks and personalities. Reading this book, a child will get the idea that animals, like people, are all unique.My son enjoys reading this book, and to my surprise has already memorized parts of it after only reading it with me a few times. He seems especially fascinated by the page describing the dogs which were accidentally killed or purposely put down for various reasons. I like that the book shows a realistic view of farm life which sometimes includes death. It does not show a romanticized view of friendly animals frolicking together in the green meadow, like you sometimes see in children's books. Those books are nice, too--but I wanted to show my son something of what farm life is really like, and I think this book does this adequately.I would recommend this book for children aged 4-10 who are interested in farm animals or farm life.

Such a lovely book. I've robably bought somewhere between 5-10 copies for everyone I know who is having babies. My son didn't start enjoying this until maybe 2.5 yo.

Leider sind die Bilder im Buch nicht mehr so schön wie auf dem vielversprechendem Cover.