Hearing this news, the eight animals residing in the barn first panic but thanks to Nanny (the mother goat), calm down and begin to create a plan to escape. Each animal uses his/her strengths and gifts to assist the grand exodus. An unexpected wild creature solves the final problem and the story ends happily for the animals.
I loved the word choice and the sophistication of the sentence structure (missing in a lot of books anymore). A couple of times I stopped to discuss why the author choose to write the sentences the way she did or why she choose to make a chapter short (a potential mentor text as far as craft). The character development was well executed. In fact, my more serious son belly-laughed a few times at Fluffy's antics (a rather dumb sheep)! One grows to love the characters and their quirks and traits.
Ms. Bond's illustrations are sweet. In fact the adorable cover is what made me first check this book out of the library.
Borrowed from the library.
Strategies: cause/effect, inferring (character traits, figurative language), expanding vocabulary
Warnings/points to discuss: I would highly recommend this book (I loved reading it aloud to my boys-all three of us looked forward to it each night.) but I did not appreciate that the main human character was an arsonist. The anticipation of animals burning to their death was a bit harsh. Recently my relatives' cows burned in a barn fire so maybe this actual event in my life is making me more sensitive to the subject.
My boys and I discussed Dewy and Grady's different reactions to their financial situation and what they should have done instead of running away from the problem or burning down the barn.
I believe this author wrote and illustrated a picture book about a real barn fire which happened in her family's history. I am hoping to read and review it soon.
Grade Level: 5.4
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