Barnyard Prayers

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Words and pictures play equal roles in this inviting volume, which playfully reprises and refreshes familiar themes and conceits. Selznick's (The Houdini Box) paintings first present a city boy preparing for sleep. Opening his little red barn set, he takes out a toy animal; in subsequent pictures, now full-bleed, the boy has entered the world of the animals, stroking a colt, visiting the henhouse, etc. The boy's deep affection for his charges is palpable, but the vigorous variety of perspectives and a certain mischief in some of the animals' expressions steer this fantasy safely clear of nostalgia. Godwin's (Christmas in the Manger) text consists of a series of verse prayers, each offered by a different character. These, too, mix the cozy with the puckish. The first poem, "The Farmer's Prayer," which faces an image of the boy in his bedroom, is fairly conventional ("Watch over us, protected, whole,/ And bless this farmer's happy soul"). Other sequences are droll. The fox's prayer includes the plea "One fine fat hen is all I ask. / Besides, [those hens] are so foolish they'd never notice if one of their own were missing"; on the opposite page, the hens pray: "We ask You once again/ To watch over us all,/ Six, seven, eight,/ Nine nine? Amen." A few poems turn jokey (the drones' prayer ends with "And God/ Save our queen), but on the whole this bedtime book will grab hold of kids' imaginations. Ages 3-7. (Mar.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

Against a nighttime cityscape seen through his window, a little boy and his cat begin their prayers. Selznick's bright illustrations show the pajama-clad boy playing with a pig in his imagination, encountering a dew-bejeweled spider's web and the spider's prayer—"No rain. / Many flies.' Gentle feet/ That take no notice/ Of one so small. / That/s all." Laura Godwin deftly portrays the essence of each animal though his or her prayer, showing the fox's greed, the cows' single-mindedness ("how I love each blade of green"), and the narcissism of the cat. We also hear from the hawk, the sparrow, the lamb and the goat. These prayers will engage children and teach them about a variety of animals and reverence as well. 2000, Hyperion Books for Children, $14.99. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Nancy Tilly

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-Beginning with "The Farmer's Prayer" and ending with "The Farmer's Benediction," this book shows typical farmyard animals and insects praying according to their natures. The selections are more respectful than religious in tone. Adults will appreciate the many double meanings, some of which children will also enjoy. The cow prays its stomachs aren't bigger than its eyes, for example, and the drones pray that God will save their queen. Some poems are juxtaposed, such as the fox's prayer for hens to eat that appears on the same page as the hens' prayers at the realization that one of their number is missing. The bright, primary-colored acrylic illustrations bring the book to life. The opening selection is illustrated with a picture of a small boy with his toy farm. In the succeeding pictures he enters into a fantasy in which he joins living animals. The second to the last poem is the sheep's prayer to "help me count myself to sleep," followed by illustrations that move readers back into the boy's city bedroom, with him asleep in a bed covered with farm toys. The sense of playfulness and the comforts of the toy farm are winningly evoked in the glow of the illustrations. This title should be popular in collections where bedtime stories for young children are in demand, although parents should be forewarned they will be expected to read all 19 poems before a sleepy child will turn off the lights.-Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|