FUNNY FARM

In this picture-book twist on Green Acres, the joke is on citified cousin Edward, a dapper dog who visits his Uncle Earl’s farm. Earl and his family try to orient Edward to their chores, and a humorous dialectic emerges between understated text and pictures packed with narrative. “In the woods Edward helps make maple syrup,” reads a typical page; the accompanying illustration, an oil painting saturated with Teague’s characteristically rich colors, shows Edward struggling to carry two pails of sap, with his foot stuck in another pail. Meanwhile, Aunt Josephine and Cousin Judy look on, bemused, as they capably check pails on other trees. The funny on this farm is also found in small pictorial details unmentioned by the text, as a robin holds an umbrella to protect her brood from a rainstorm or an industrious ant spins wool alongside Edward and his family while a sheep gazes in through the window. Ultimately, there’s very little story holding the book together, but the humor found on each page is satisfying in its own right. (Picture book. 3-5)