Farm (review)

It's been awhile since Cooper has taken the picture-book crowd on a field trip, and those who enjoyed his previous tours, from construction site (Building, BCCB 4/99) to dance studio (Dance, BCCB 9/01), can line right up for a look at a large Midwestern farm. We begin in spring, when the tractor tills the soil, the planter drops in the corn seeds, and the farm kids tend the livestock and the family garden. The animals are introduced, both individuals who merit names and herds that settle for numbered tags, and the year rolls toward summer when things slow down, "the cattle mosey around and poop," and "sheets of water sweep the farm, hammering roofs and rattling windows." In almost no time at all it's fall, when combine harvesters, full silos, and grain elevators take center stage, and the familiar yellow school bus returns; then "the fields are dirt again, ready for next year." Cooper lets his fields stretch in long, lazy layers over the double-page spreads, underscoring the flat terrain and distant horizon of the Illinois farms that, according to commentary on his website, inspired his work. Several spreads simply feature tidy arrays of vignettes, in which corn, eggs, and tomatoes appropriately loom as large as the people who cultivate them. As in his earlier titles, Cooper invites his audience to engage all five senses, and if you're not itching from mosquito bites and grit under your collar after looking at this book, you haven't been paying attention.