Through creative tweaking, a familiar nursery rhyme, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” returns as a cadenced lesson in farmyard enterprise as well as a comforting bedtime lullaby.
A farm boy asks, “Baa, baa, black sheep! Have you any wool?” The sheep predictably replies, “Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full.” Will the wool make a blanket for his bed? “Yes sir, yes, sir,” the black sheep assures him. The boy queries, “Honk, honk, gray goose! Have you any down?” and the goose responds, “Yes, sir, yes, sir, half a pound.” Will the down make a pillow for his head? Of course. Progressing through the farmyard, the boy asks the red hen for eggs to make bread, the yellow bee for honey for a spread and the brown cow for milk to drink before bed. After eating bread with honey and drinking the milk, the boy falls asleep with the wool blanket and down pillow while his farmyard friends dream of more “flowers to sip” and “grass to chew.” Primitive, folksy, multi-hued illustrations expand the pleasantly repetitive, rhyming text by showing the sheep knitting a blanket, the goose flapping feathers for a pillow, the red hen using eggs to make bread, the bee spreading honey on bread and the cow watching the boy drink her milk.
Farmyard industry becomes a bedtime soporific. (Picture book. 2-6)