Quick Booktalk
Poetic text written in the voice of an old barn recollects the building's long history and describes all that occurs within its walls as well as outside.
About the Illustrations
The illustrations are lovely, making great use of light and shadow to portray the interior of the barn and the surrounding farm. There are some people in a few pictures, but mainly the focus is the architecture, animals, and landscape of a farm. The barn is shown from a number of vantage points during different hours of the day, which helps give a full portrait of all that occurs inside a barn.
Story Time Possibilities
While the poetic text is enjoyable to read aloud, I would most likely not use this book at story time with young children. It's wordy and very quiet, and though there are animals on many pages, it's not the kind of book that is conducive to a lot of interaction through animal sounds or anything like that. I think its best read-aloud audience would probably be an elementary school class, especially one that is studying farming in some way.
Readers Advisory
Because farms are a popular topic, this book might get checked out from libraries for that reason, but I'm not sure it's what the typical farm-loving picture book reader is looking for, at least in my suburban neck of the woods. I like the book a lot personally, especially Barry Root's artwork, so we will most likely keep this one, but if I were considering purchasing this for a library, I'd be slightly more hesitant.
Disclosure
I received a finished copy of The Barn from Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review.
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