An un-pictured artist has been working on a simple painting of a barn and animals in Blue Chicken by Deborah Freedman (Viking, 2011). The almost-finished painting, however, has a creative chicken that decides to help finish the painting once the artist is away. Climbing out of the picture, she only succeeds in making a big

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Hogwash! by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jim McMullan (Little, Brown, June 2011) is a silly book about a farmer who wants to give the pigs a bath. With Karma Wilson’s signature rhyming style (as in Bear Snores On and The Cow Loves Cookies), she brings a silly farm to life with humor. To my son’s delight, by the end,

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Mr. Duck Means Business by Tammi Sauer, illustrated by Jeff Mack (Simon and Schuster, January 2011), tells the story of a very cranky duck who does not want his silent pond disturbed. When the nearby farm animals begin using his pond for their weekly swim, Duck is not happy. That is until he realizes how much he

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Baby Says “Moo” by JoAnn Early Macken and illustrated by David Walker (Hyperion, March 2011) is a humorous story of a young baby who cannot yet distinguish between the different animal sounds, but rather insists that each animal says “Moo.” As a family drives toward their picnic destination, they see different animals from the car

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In a simple rhythm and using bright and realistic paintings of animals, Nadia Krilanovich introduces animal and their sounds to the young reader in Chicken Chicken Duck (Tricycle Press, 2011). The animals are all stacked on top of each other in silly ways, and they are also painted on a plain white background, which is

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