Farm

Do you consider yourself rural or urban? That might make or break your love of Elisha Cooper's picture book Farm. He sums up what it means to be rural, to be farm. He must be a secret lover of Steinbeck and Willa Cather---both lovers of the earth.

Anyone who respects setting and place, who's encountered peace by just being---will enjoy this read with their children.

Truthfully, the written words were a bit beyond their attention spans, but their visuals captivated them. We are rural; we related.

Elisha got his settings from actual farms, and I can tell. It made me feel like I was driving in Easter Washington on our way to the family cabin. The weather was the major character. All depends on the weather...planting, pollinating, cutting, harvesting, plowing....waiting....

It made me want to know more about him. I'm including a link to his own words, where he got the idea for his book.

It is a must read.






We also found the Country Road ABC by Arthur Geisert.


I loved this read; much more at my boys' attention levels. Arthur celebrated it all: there were the nice farms, complete with proper out buildings, and then there was the decapitated trailer...a viable farmhouse option that are equally part of the farm landscape. I also could appreciate the picture of the farmers "conversating" at the local coffee shop. The still of winter and the frantic pace of summer was all capture accurately in Geisert's telling.