Farmer Brown Goes Round and Round
[reviewed by Mary Porter Hudson]

In this picture book, Farmer Brown lives on a farm filled with animals such as cows, hens, cats, dogs, and several others. After a full day of work, Farmer Brown contently rocks in a chair on the porch. All of a sudden, a twister comes out of nowhere and throws everything on the farm into a whirlwind. Farmer Brown finally settles back in after the tornado, but just when everything is calm, the twister comes back to do more damage to the farm. For the second time, Farmer Brown has to clean up around his farm after the destruction.

When events are unstable in this particular picture book, this factor is obvious to the readers by the way objects are placed on each page. For instance, something bad will happen because there are pictorial signs of a storm coming. The clothes on the line are swaying in the wind, and the birds, looking scared, are hovered together. In addition, the farmer's cap is blowing in the wind, and it appears to be cloudy. There are grey clouds and lighting bolts in the sky. The cat and dog are franticly running off the porch, the chair is unstable, the pail is knocked over, and the farmer's feet are not on the ground. In fact, Farmer Brown even looks panicked. Apparently, a storm is getting ready to strike and soon after, objects are disoriented and scattered. There is a twister coming because everything is unstable. All the animals are scattered around the page and clothes are flying all over the place. Once the storm dies down, Farmer Brown takes notice of the damage. We see grey clouds and lightning bolts in the sky, and the animals and Farmer Brown look frightened. Then, all the animals are scattered in the whirlwind of the tornado. None of the animals' feet are touching the ground, clearly a sign of instability.

All of these examples foreshadow the storm. The story climaxes during the second storm. In the conclusion, all the animals once again are fine and oriented with their surroundings. This storm is not a particularly dangerous one. In fact, watching the animals fly around is funny. The two twisters could have been potentially harmful, but the farm is back to normal in no time.

These are just a few examples of how this particular picture book conveys the meaning behind a story, and these representations are definitely clear and precise.