A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale

by Karen Rostoker-Gruber, Kristina Swarner (Illustrator)

Overview

Animal antics abound in this hilarious tale!

Farmer Earl has had enough—his home is too crowded! So, he visits the wise woman in town for help. She tells him to bring all his ducks in the house. And then all his horses. And all his goats too! How will there be more room with all these animals? This updated folktale uses humor to explore what it takes to gain a new perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807556917
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	10/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	AD510L (what's this?)
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Karen Rostoker-Gruber is a multi-award-winning author of many picture books, including Farmer Kobi's Hanukkah Match. She loves adventure and traveling to far-away places. Karen lives in New Jersey.

Kristina Swarner’s work draws much of its imagery and inspiration from memories of exploring old houses, woods, and gardens when she was a child. Her awards include the Koret International Book Award in 2006 and the Sydney Taylor Book Award Gold Medal in 2008. She lives in Chicago.

Editorial Reviews

"Humorous story of changing one's perspective"—Association of Jewish Libraries

From the Publisher

2020-07-14
A wise woman offers advice to a farmer whose home is too noisy and too crowded.

A little house with a human or animal face in every window sits solidly in the meadow as a cock welcomes the morning. It is an “itty-bitty house” in every detail. Farmer Earl strides out the doorway of his too-crowded and too-noisy house, leaving behind his wife and several children to ask a neighbor for help. The answer, to bring his ducks into the house, confuses him, but he follows her advice. The ducks do as ducks do—“flapp[ing]” and “snack[ing]” and “waddl[ing]” and “quack[ing]”—so the farmer returns to the wise woman. Housing the horses and goats are her next words of wisdom, resulting in even more mayhem. Finally, the outdoor animals are returned to the outdoors, and Farmer Earl at last finds peace “AND extra space!” The author credits the Yiddish folktale “It Could Always Be Worse” as her source, but the flavor of the original is gone. With plenty of active and noisy verbs, the repetitive text does offer possibilities for a lively read-aloud session. The humans all present as White with an Americana folk-art sameness to their facial features while the animal antics are mildly amusing. The effect is to create very busy indoor settings that appear more as a freeze-frame than an animated event, taking some energy away from the text.

A Yiddish folktale retold without the oy vey. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews