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Summary
Summary
Farmer Boast lives next door to Farmer Bluster, who lives next door to Farmer Smart. Each thinks his cornfield is the best -until the mice move in! Farmer Boast and Farmer Bluster make bumbling attempts to drive out the mice, but only Farmer Smart has the purr-fect solution. The hilarious dialogue and zany illustrations will keep kids laughing right up until the surprising conclusion!
Author Notes
James Sage is the author of many books for children, including The Little Band, To Sleep, and Sassy Gracie. He lives in the United Kingdom.
Russell Ayto has illustrated several books for children including You'll Grow Soon, Alex by Andrea Shavick.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-Farmer Boast and Farmer Bluster have an ongoing competition to see who has the best cornfield. Farmer Smart knows that his is the best, but he's too modest to brag. When their fields are devastated by mice, Boast and Bluster continue their rivalry, building outlandish contraptions to defeat the critters, while Smart simply gets a cat. When she has kittens, he gives one to each of his neighbors so that they can protect their land sensibly. In the end each man is certain that his cat is the best, showing that no one has really changed. The story is filled with wacky humor, cornball sayings, and wild drawings. Ayto's brightly colored illustrations have a comic-book presentation, sometimes with two or more panels to a page. This offering is not great literature, but lots of fun as a read-aloud or as a picture book for older readers.-Marlene Gawron, Orange County Library, Orlando, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Their cornfields overrun by mice, two feuding farmers compete to build the best mousetrap. " `Those mice will soon learn who's boss around here!' bragged Farmer Boast. `With my invention they don't stand a chance,' gloated Farmer Bluster." After the rodents mock their convoluted devices, which involve a junkyard's worth of wheels, wire, old teakettles and wooden tools, the tall, slouching Boast and red-bearded, gnomish Bluster beat a path to Farmer Smart's mouse-free acreage. They plot to steal his big orange tabby, but when they find her, "she's not quite so fat anymore." Smart's cat has had kittens, and each farmer gets one: problem solved. Although the title divulges Smart's secret weapon, Sage (Where the Great Bear Watches) spends most of the book on Boast and Bluster's rivalry; the cat's introduction is anticlimactic. Ayto (You'll Grow Soon, Alex), whose sputtery, tense ink line and eccentric characters recall Ronald Searle's and James Snow's work, likewise fails to follow through on the dueling men and their Rube Goldberg contraptions. When he abruptly shifts his focus to the tranquil cat, she does little more than flex her claws. Ages 4-7. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
When mice invade three neighboring farmersÆ cornfields, Farmer Bluster and Farmer Boast (who have personalities that suit their names) construct elaborate but ineffective traps. Farmer SmartÆs method--a fat cat--is far more successful, and when the cat has kittens, there are plenty of mousers for everyone. Spiky ink and watercolor illustrations, happily reminiscent of early Raymond Briggs, accompany this lively, funny tale. From HORN BOOK Fall 2002, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
PreS.^-Gr. 2. What a trio these three neighboring farmers are: Farmer Boast in his patched overalls, Farmer Bluster with his bristly red beard, and Farmer Smart, natty in his three-piece suit and Wellingtons. Each thinks his cornfield is the best. But while Boast and Bluster argue, Smart is too modest to say so. When hordes of mice begin devouring the grain, Boast and Bluster build weird Rube Goldberg-like contraptions, but Smart's fields stay pristine. The mice mock the mousetraps, so the two stricken farmers try to find Smart's secret. It's not much of one: his Fat Cat is a mouser par excellence, and when she produces kittens, Buster's and Boast's fields each get a champion. Watercolor-and-ink pictures add amusement value, with exaggerated shapes and edgy lines, nice use of pattern, and ancillary dialog splashed over the pictures. In the end, each farmer is now convinced his cat is the best! --GraceAnne A. DeCandido