Before the farmer’s day is done, she does her chores, one by one. She milks the cow, counts the sheep, sings the piglets off to sleep.
But if she is to get a well-earned, sound night’s sleep she needs her favourite pyjamas – the blue ones all covered in sheep. But they are nowhere to be found! And, as each day goes by with no sign of them, and she gets more and more tired, things on the farm get more and more chaotic as she “pushes the piglets into the coop, and feeds the chickens a scooper of poop.” In fact, things get so bad that the animals themselves decide they must find the pyjamas if they are to get back to normality…
Sometimes, you pick up a book and you know that you just have to read and review it now, even if it hasn’t come to the top of the TBR pile yet. Even if I didn’t live in a rural farming community where I know little people are going to love this, it was one of those. Deliberately deviating from the normal image of a weather-beaten, overall clad male farmer, the author has chosen to make an older, grey-haired female at the centre of the story -someone that not only will country kids relate to but which might break down some of the stereotypes that city kids have – and the charming detailed-filled illustrations that put even the inner-city child out onto the farm, are just going to delight them as much as the jaunty rhyme that carries the story and the farmer’s growing confusion along at a fast clip. And they will definitely love the ending when the pyjamas are eventually found – but with a surprise twist!
Like others by this Kiwi author including Hatch and Match and You Can’t Pat a Fish . I could hear myself sharing it with an enraptured audience, and experience has shown me that when that happens, it’s a winner. If we want our littlies to be turned on to the magic of print and the joy of reading, we need stories like these that are just sheer fun and invite children to talk about their favourite PJs, perhaps even designing some new ones for the farmer.
Before the farmer’s day is done,
