Ms. MacDonald, fashionable in ankle boots and hoop earrings, takes her class of two dozen appealingly diverse children ``down to the farm, E-I-E-I-O.'' Back in the classroom they parade around imitating the farm animals, improvising costumes, and painting scenery, then tidy up and take a nap. Every activity becomes embedded in cumulative verse (``Here a lid, there a wipe, everybody wash hands''), which slows things down at times. But the pace quickens when the children put on a performance for parents, an exuberant song and dance parade that's warmly and amusingly detailed. The original song wins for simple, raucous fun; this version scores for its rendering of energetic children making an eye-filling hubbub. (Picture book. 5-8)
