Barn Boot Blues (review)

When twelve-year-old Taylor is transplanted from city life to a rural farm a hundred miles away, things do not go so well. Farm work is tougher than the family realized, and they struggle with the new demands made upon them by a life that involves obstreperous livestock and constant physical labor. There are injuries, excrement encounters (Taylor accidentally goes to school with chicken poop in her hair), animal deaths, school problems (see above re: chicken poop), and parental tension. When Taylor's new pal, Megan, suggests a plan to get her off the farm, Taylor soon throws herself into it, collecting demerit points and bad grades at school and leaving pointed articles ("Farming Can Be Dangerous to Your Health") around the house. As things escalate, Taylor's mom and dad reluctantly decide to sell the farm, until Taylor's dad has an accident, one of the family's pregnant sheep simultaneously begins her labor, and Taylor must work alone to deliver the triplet lambs. How are you gonna take them back to Minneapolis after they've delivered lambs on the farm? Friend gives Taylor a credible, engaging voice and peppers her narrative with plenty of humor; after a difficult time chasing sheep ends with Taylor and her dad prone, covered in sheep poop, and surrounded by the ovines, her dad turns to her and says, "Well, I've enjoyed this quality time we've spent together today, haven't you?" It's refreshing to see a city-folk-turned-farmers story in which real problems and struggles occur, but Friend also effectively shows the rewarding side of farm life. Hand this slim volume to city kids who dream of farm living or farm kids who will get a kick out of seeing their world through fresh eyes.