Review by Smruthi -- Farmer Beau's Farm by Kathleen Geiger

[Smruthi]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Farmer Beau's Farm" by Kathleen Geiger.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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I have read many stories to my 5 year old son and Farmer Beau's farm was a wonderful addition.

Farmer Beau, along with his sweet wife Bamma lived a peaceful life in their farm, taking care of the many flowers in their garden. One day he came across six little kittens playing in his garage. The couple was excited with their new guests and took care of them by providing food and shelter. One by one, the kittens grew up and left. Farmer Beau and his wife though sad, decided to keep the last kitten and named her 'Kailey' - the one who's always playful and friendly. Farmer Beau even built her a comfy little house in the corner of the barn.

One day she came across a funny looking animal. It's none other than Samantha bunny - Sammy to her friends. She was looking for a place to stay. Kailey decided Sammy can stay at the barn and they became best of friends. Everything went well but one day they overheard Farmer Beau and Bamma gushing about an unusual new pet, which according to them was their ' love at first sight'. This surely filled the two (animals) with dread and jealousy. What kind of an unusual pet is it? What if everyone laugh at them after seeing the new member of the farm? And the rest of the story shows how love, friendship and acceptance make all the difference.

I really liked the moral of this story. This book is both for a parent and the kid. It shows how a child feels when he has to share his parents with a sibling or when they have to accept a new member into their circle. This book actually tells the kid how to accept the new development and it's good to teach children such things from start. But I wish there was more to the story. May be couple more pages and illustrations to show how the trio became quick friends and introduced the new member around the farm? How Sammy and Kailey tried to defend their new friend in case of any threat (however small it may be). This will further tell the kids how to deal with bullies and never to let go of their friends.

I'm glad that this book is lengthy and has more words in it, than most of the books in this section. I like the cover page of the book, but I wish they hid one of the animal’s faces to keep the mystery going. From the first page itself, I could feel Farmer Beau and his wife Bamma are really sweet people. The colours are bright and cheerful. But I can't understand why they decided to colour one of the animal pink! The ratio of the illustrations to the total no of pages is fair, but I wish there were more. Also I have an issue with the illustrations. The kittens at the beginning of the story looked more like cats, not kittens. The editing of the book was good, but some punctuation marks (Ex: Comma) were used in places where it was not needed.
Overall I rate this story 3 out of 4 stars .

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Farmer Beau's Farm
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