From Publishers Weekly Lester ( Imagine ; Isabella's Bed ) opens the barn door, as it were, upon her recollections of life on the Australian farm where she grew up. Family members are introduced up front; the reader then follows the various characters through the ups and downs of one year. As narrator, Lester also lets readers in on some more personal matters--such as her longing for a new pony or her attempts to become famous. Summer days, she reports, were filled with driving "mobs" of cattle, picking blackberries and, perhaps, taking a swim. Australian autumn brought new calves, rainstorms and mushrooms; after a winter spent doing chores, springtime marked the season for "tadpoling and fishing expeditions" as well as baling hay. Children will likely be fascinated by the different seasons Down Under. Lester's fond remembrances contain dollops of humor and tenderness, and a wealth of information about farm life can be inferred. Through it all, the author/artist's childlike sensibilities keep the pace lively. Her somewhat pale watercolor palette accommodates each of the seasons, offering a pleasant glimpse at a foreign landscape. And her friendly cast of kind-faced figures is truly likable. Ages 4-8. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more From School Library Journal Grade 1-3-American readers will be introduced to a "jinker," a "bush run," and "mobs of cattle" in this gentle memoir. Spanning one year of her childhood on an Australian farm overlooking the sea, Lester's narrative begins and ends near Christmas time in the summer-perhaps a puzzling combination for northern hemisphere children. The scant story line-a child longs for a horse to replace deceased Inky-weaves in and out of the scenes of the everyday life of this family of four children. Such events as the Quietest Pony Contest, the dog high jump, a difficult calf birthing, and cattle drives are engagingly described. Illustrations are plentiful and intricate; varying sized panels (often three per page) create a design that adds great visual interest. The straightforward family portrait that stretches across the top of the first page is particularly charming, introducing each member astride a horse or motorbike. The author's writing and illustrating style is delicate. Her watercolors, neatly lined with ink; the highly stylized figures and faces; and the abundant detailing all contribute to this lovely picture book.Lee Bock, Brown County Public Libraries, Green Bay, WICopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more From Booklist Ages 5-8. Lester, who grew up on an Australian farm, recalls what life was like when we worked on the land together the year her pony died. Soft, pastel watercolors picture the seasons changing as Mum, Dad, Charlie, Kate, Jake, and me care for the cattle through cycles of birth and death and as the children ride their ponies like cowboys, splash in the creek, and play all sorts of wonderful games. The highlight of the year for me is the Christmas gift found waiting in the orcharda palomino pony. Colored borders encircle attractive double-page spreads composed of variously sized pictures that whimsically and lovingly illustrate the words. Radiant with childhood delight, the book lovingly depicts intriguing particulars of everyday life in a faraway place, a place that seems both familiar and strange. Notes about terminology (for example, chooks, mob) and an explanation of Australia's seasonal differences are appended. Stephanie Zvirin Read more From Kirkus Reviews A year in the life of an Australian farm, told by one of the kids (probably the young Lester, as a note at the end of the book suggests) in a gentle, understated tone. Readers are taken through the seasonal chores, from calving to roundup. It is a particular knack of Lester's (Isabella's Bed, 1993) to insinuate lots of faithful, suggestive touches into the story: autumn leaves sent spinning behind the running horses, brushfires casting an eerie yellow light, an orphaned calf dressed in the jacket of a dead calf so as to be adopted by the mother, a perfect fairy ring of autumn mushrooms. The cadence of the text is warm and comforting, with enough breaks and shifts of direction to keep it from becoming treacly. One nice twist is the minor confusion that results from the flip-flopping of austral seasons: It's fun to get caught out when you exclaim, ``That can't be!,'' and then remember where you are. Lester's illustrations are full of detail and care, instinctively right with either a sheep slaughter or a Christmas morning. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Read more Review "A lively Austra-lian recollection that manages to steer clear of nostalgia . . . in favor of remembered mini-stories that will set newer folks yearning for some agricultural action of their own." -- Review Read more About the Author Australian author Alison Lester is perhaps best known for her picture books. However, she captivated her audience with her first novel, The Quicksand Pony. In a starred review School Library Journal called it “a gripping adventure story, a tale of survival, an engaging mystery, a touching animal story, and a family saga.” Read more
C**D
Wonderful book about life on a ranch
Wonderful book about life on a ranch. It's a kid book but entertaining to adults too! So graphic that it made me cry with happy childhood memories. Highly recommend!
J**.
Three Stars
Good book but I wish that it was specified as an old library book
J**N
Wonderful story,Wonderful illustrations
Alison Lester is one of the best illustrators and writers for children. Her picture books are classics. While 'My Farm' is set in Gippsland, Victoria (Australia), the tale of a young person longing for a horse of her own and family life on a farm is accurate and enjoyable - describing ups and downs as the year unfolds. Highly recommended!
M**M
Beautofully Illustrated and Told Reminiscense of Rural Australia
This book attracted me with its beautiful cover, and I expected a well-illustrated, serene pastoral. I was right about the pictures, they're uniformly superb but "My Farm" has a greater narrative and emotional range than its simple title suggests. Between the covers, Lester shows us the fun and the hard work of living on an Australian sheep and cattle farm."My Farm" skirts the boundaries between the picture book and the chapter book by using three pictures per page, acoompanied by Lester's tightly constructed, informative narrative. Lester is also capable of poetic images that match the soft visuals. This autobiographical book follows the seasonal chores and mischief on a mid-20th centure seaside Australian farm. Lester invokes another time and place through Australian terms (explained at the back of the book), and her pictures of the farm and its surroundings. While farm life (big family gatherings, humorous encounters with siblings, home grown games, horseback riding, community faires) are pleasingly light, Lester doesn't settle into an easy sentimentality. Baby and older animals don;t always make it, and sheep may be slaughtered for food. The latter is depicted by a soft version of something you might see in a butcher shop, nothing gory, but you know what you're seeing.)A recurring subplot involves Lester's desire for a bigger, faster pony. It's no surprise when she finally gets on, but young kids not used to this formula may enjoy the suspense. Disappointed one summer Christmas (Lester reminds us later that the seasons are "reversed" in Australia), young Alison gets her dream horse one Christmas later, waiting for her under an apple tree just ready for plucking. With gorgeous pictures and funny, informative, and sometimes touching vignettes, this is a heart-warming piece of Australiana.
A**R
AN AUSSIE FARM CHILDHOOD
.What's it like growing up on an Aussie farm? Read Alison Lester's "My Farm" and you will be captivated by her reminiscences.You will follow young Alison and her two brothers and sister through the highs (many) and lows (a few) of their young rural lives.There's lots of Aussie bush humour shining through. Painting clay stripes on an old black horse gives you a "Native Australian Zebra" and entering your Kelpie sheep dog in the dog high jump is all part of the fun.We are not shielded from the harsher realities of life in the bush. We are threatened by bushfires; round-up runaway cows and we even assist mum to deliver a newborn calf.We enjoy the bounties of nature and go picking wild blackberries and field mushrooms.There are some esoteric references to which only Aussies might relate, such as children swinging on the rotary clothesline, best known as the iconic Hills Hoist.Alison's illustrations have a quirky charm. Faces are simply drawn, but the atmospherics of the landscapes and farm scenes are exquisite."My Farm" is the most sophisticated of Alison's works and neatly supplements her other works such as "Bouncing and Bumping" for the younger reader and "Imagine" her most successful book.Some readers may want a glossary of Aussie terms eg chooks = hens, drover = cowboy, mobs = herd, but these all give a delightful flavour to a book which will have great appeal to all young children.
N**W
Strangely smug bit of Australiana
Beautifully written book ("soft, purple sea" is lovely), with an episodic story, given shape by the progress of the seasons - and, of course, the protagonist's desire for a pony. The pictures are a little flat and generic, though, lacking the vividness of the prose. Along with earnest discourse about Vegemite and po-faced singer-songwriterish ballads about Don Bradman, this book belongs to that slightly awkward genre of self-conscious Australiana: there's something almost a bit insecure about its insistence on a distinctive national-cultural past experience, and oddly self-othering about its use of Australian English ("chooks" and what-not) - as though this were being experienced as charming "local colour" by the author as much as her readers in other countries. Not helped in this case by the author's faintly pleased-with-herself emphasis on the gloriously "free-range" character of her rural childhood. Can't think who her audience would be for this stuff: urban youths who, inspired, might decide to drop their videogame controllers and retire to the countryside?? Anyway, there's something a bit preachy and self-regarding about this book's brand of nostalgia - and it left this adult, while reading it aloud, to speculate about all the negatives. We don't get to hear about what kinds of remarks the protagonist's parents made about aboriginal people when standing in their homey little kitchen. I wonder.
D**Y
Perfect bedtime story
My boy/girl 6 year old twins both adore this book and so do I! My Farm plugs right into the fantasy that so many of us have; life on a farm as a child. Alison shares a year of her childhood with frank honesty that kids appreciate. One can't help but be drawn into this beautiful story. And we are always left feeling peaceful and content. A great asset in a bedtime story!
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