Tractors do many different jobs on the farm. Smiling Old MacDonald and his big red friend demonstrate a goodly number of them as his usually noisy animals quietly look on. He plants the seeds, waters the fields, harvests wheat and spreads manure. He even takes his animal friends to the fair before climbing the stairs for a well-deserved rest. Carter’s illustrations, acrylic paint over drywall compound and foam board, are as enticing as ever. Unfortunately, the text tries to squeeze in to Old MacDonald’s nursery rhyme. Sometimes the machine name doesn’t quite fit into the verse: “Old MacDonald drives a tractor. And on that tractor, he pulls a cultivator. Smooth it here. Smooth it there. Maybe Old MacDonald could find a cultivator . . . for his hair!” However, machinery-minded toddlers will not mind in the least. This likely offers them a few machines they haven’t yet heard of. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: June 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59643-023-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007
There is a lot going on in the polished design of this counting book, with some scenes and objects more readily recognizable in their simplicity or sophistication than others. Cars are odd, unfamiliar shapes, five on one small page, with their passengers more the focal point. But then the people are the focus of this quirky, jolly entrant into the board book genre, in which children of different races eat blueberries, water flowers, and generally make merry. There are things to count, 120, and a nice final spread recaps the exercise. (Board book. 2-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81660-X
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1997
1 2 3 Count With Me ($12.95; Sept. 1, 1996; 24 pp.; 0-689-80828-3): From one to twenty, this bright, basic counting book puts forth a given number of items for each number, e.g., four ponies. Lifting a flap reveals related items of the same number: Four horse shoes show up one pony's saddle. The grand finale is twenty presents, each just a lift of the flap away from being ``unwrapped.'' Should the sturdy little doors and flaps fall off— as inevitably they will—the book still works. (Lift-the-flap. 2-4)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-689-80828-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
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