105 Ways to Give a Book

Cybils FPB Nominees: Over in the Meadow

Over in the Meadow
illustrated by Jill McDonald, sung by Susan Reed

Barefoot Books 2011, review copy from library

Over in the MeadowIf you have young kids or work with young kids or ever had or worked with young kids, you’ll know the song “Over in the Meadow.” You are also likely to know of at least one picture book adaptation. If you are a librarian, you certainly know about many. Therein lies my only real complaint about this book, being that I’m not sure that we needed another one. The illustrations are bright, cute and were created “digitally using collected and painted papers.” That’s from the endnotes which I very much appreciated, as I would like something in every picture book that talks about the medium of the artwork. (Send message.) The last pages of the book contain a little information about meadows and each animal featured — which are mostly the standards, with a bit of switching to include sheep instead of frogs and mice for crickets. Like many other versions, this one includes the music notes for those among us who want to play along and has a CD with an upbeat, country sound. Overall, it’s a cute enough book; I’m just not sure if it was necessary.

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2 comments:

Elisabeth Marie said...

I have had this on hold at my library for the longest time... (seriously, like 2 months)

Linda Knoll said...

I just discovered your blog... looks like I'm going to love it!

I kind of agree with you about the plethora of Over in the Meadow adaptations....

However, I actually self-published one that I think is pretty good. I adapted the song to fit the animals that are native to my area, the San Joaquin Valley in California, and I have had a great reaction from local teachers and parents who are excited there is a book they can use to teach about the area in which they actually live.

If you want to check it out, its here on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Over-Valley-2-Linda-Knoll/dp/1450539599/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321979306&sr=1-11