THE CASE OF OLD MACDONALD AND HIS FARM

There are strange doings at Old MacDonald’s farm, so animal control comes to investigate.

Brown-skinned Officer Busby starts with an inquiry about a rabbit. “Little fellow in a blue coat?” Knowledgeable readers will recognize that suspect as Peter Rabbit, but that’s the wrong farm, as pale-skinned Old MacDonald, clad in overalls and a straw hat, points out. No, the criminal activity here is far worse. The cabbages have painted faces, corn’s been dumped in the pond, and “pizzas keep getting delivered to my goats” (“They love the boxes”). Someone’s drawn mustaches on the cows, the chickens are wearing funny hats, and the horses have zebra stripes. Bits of the usual refrain (“a moo-moo here, a moo-moo there”) show up in the dialogue, but Busby is all business. She knows a gang of “silly” creatures, which include a skunk, an armadillo, a porcupine, and a toad, frequenters of novelty shops where they buy their practical jokes. The officer also gives Old MacDonald bad news. Not only will the gang attack annually on April Fools’ Day, the day of the story’s events, but they’ll be back with more surprises on the nation’s birthday. Cleverly riffing on the popular children’s song and also giving the story wryly humorous Law & Order vibes, Teague’s text will work well as a read-aloud for group and one-on-one sharing alike. Colorful acrylic illustrations are amusingly exaggerated, especially the expressions on the human characters.

Here a ha ha, there a ha ha—this one’s bound to elicit chuckles.