Book Description
for Baby's First Farm by Danielle McLean and Craig Shuttlewood
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
This ingenious little board book uses a flap-within-a-flap to reveal first a baby animal and then others inside different kinds of farm buildings. As a light-skinned farmer approaches each building (henhouse, pigsty, cowshed, sheep pen), the main narrative names the structure and asks who is inside (e.g., “This is a cowshed. But who is inside?”). On the same page, in a dialogue bubble, the farmer wonders what she is hearing from behind the object in front of the building (e.g., ”What is that noise behind the straw bale?”). On the opposite page is the building and the item hiding the noise-maker. The small flap (e.g,. hay bale) revealing a baby animal (a calf) is set inside the larger flap that allows the front of the entire building to pull down, revealing one or more other animals (the calf’s mother). A hen, cow, pig, and sheep all get a moment to shine before the final page spread folds out to reveal all of the animal friends inside a big red barn. (Ages 1-3)
CCBC Choices 2022. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2022. Used with permission.