This fun twist on a familiar song envisions Old MacDonald as a capable, bespectacled sheep, who's busy building something "in her shop." One by one her animal friends and neighbors drop by and take up various tools—a hammer ("with a tap tap
here/ and a tap tap
there"), a file ("with a scritch scratch
here/ and a scritch scratch
there") and so on—and join in on the project. Soon, the whole barnyard is busily employed until the very end when Old MacDonald unveils a scale replica masterpiece of their very own home ("and in her shop she had a…farm!"). Preschoolers will want to join in the bouncy cadences and alliterative sounds of Shulman's version of the cumulative rhyme. Wolff's (the Miss Bindergarten books) bright gouache and pastel illustrations drop subtle hints to the project in process. Soft shading ratchets up the cozy factor, while such touches as gold hoop earrings and a floral apron for Old MacDonald, a chicken picking apples from a tree and a very tidy mouse who sweeps up wood shavings at the bottom of each page add character to the barnyard as well as pizzazz. Endpapers designed as a pegboard neatly display (and label) the tools used within the book (and more). Ages 2-6. (Sept.)
