Review by Doaa Wael -- Farmer Beau's Farm

Doaa Wael · Post by **Doaa Wael** » 05 Oct 2017, 10:46

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

4 out of 4 stars

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Farmer Beau’s Farm by Kathleen Geiger is a creative children’s story with a beautiful lesson. The story is about the adorable Bamma and her husband, Farmer Beau, who enjoy a wonderful life on their farm in the countryside.

On a sunny day, six furry kittens roam Mr. Beau’s farm. Bamma and her husband enjoy the presence of the kittens and take care of them until one day; the kittens grew up and left the farm, all but one. They named her Kailey and Farmer Beau built her a tiny house at the corner of the barn. Kailey was having fun on the farm. One day, she found a furry creature with strange ears. The creature introduced itself as Sammy the bunny and from that day on, Kailey and Sammy became best friends and adorable playmates. Kailey took Sammy back to the barn were Bamma and Beau found him and decided to take care of him just like Kailey. Days passed and the two creatures existed in harmony, until one day, Bamma and Beau were talking excitedly about a new creature, Malissa. When Kailey and Sammy heard about Malissa, they got worried that Bamma and Beau would forget about them and divert all their attention towards the new creature.

This is quite an interesting and creative story about care, friendships, acceptance, and transformation. It illustrates how Kailey befriended a bunny who turned into her best friend despite their differences. Then shortly after the arrival of the new creature was announced, Kailey and Sammy experienced fear and worry of being neglected, but then later learn to assess the situation, accept the differences of the new creature and befriend him, making the best out of their experience. I think this can be a great story for children who find it hard to make new friends or if you are a parent and expecting. This story can help ease the worries of older siblings who fear the arrival of a new baby, worrying that he will take all the attention.

I loved how this book contained visually stimulating elements within the text and lots of beautiful descriptions. For example, “Bamma came out holding a tray with two cups of coffee and some freshly baked cookies” was a sentence that appealed to me because it encourages the reader to imagine the characters and visualize what they are doing. Moreover, saying that Bamma had two cups subconsciously sends a message that Bamma is a loving and caring person who looks out after her husband. This is also emphasizing previous mentions of how Bamma loves baking, which teaches the children to peruse what they love, which is a very important lesson to grasp at a young age. Sammy and Kailey repeatedly kept wondering what the new creature was. Since the third creature was drawn on the cover, I think this would be a great point to engage the children and ask them to guess.

I was amazed by the level of detail in the illustrations. Sammy and Kailey were both seen wearing cute necklaces in every frame which I personally thought was a very artistic touch. While I absolutely loved the illustrations, I felt they were scarce. I think this book would have benefited from more illustrations. Since the ratio of text to illustrations was in favor of text, I think the suitable age group for this book would be those who are above five years old. Children under five would also enjoy and understand the story, but they would require parental guidance as some words are quite complex such as “Proclaimed” and “tinkering”.

It is worth noting that this book was on the shelf for quite a while until Kathleen’s husband passed away recently. The book is supposed to be some sort of a memorial as Bamma and Farmer Beau represent her husband and herself. I think that was a beautiful gesture. Kathleen has consulted with her granddaughters about what creatures they would like to see and what colors do they imagine these creatures to be. I admire authors who engage the right audience during the process of development. I think this was a good read and will definitely appeal to the designated age group, therefore, I rate it 4 out of 4 stars.

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Farmer Beau's Farm
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