Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. But what if Old MacDonald decided to get a dragon? This very funny story by Ken Baker takes a look at that possibility.
Old MacDonald sits on his porch one day and starts to sing the classic tune that everyone knows and loves. Suddenly, his cow walks up and interrupts him – “I’ve got a beef with you. Dragons don’t belong on farms.”
He tells MacDonald that it is him or the dragon. “Faster than the farmer could sing E-I-E-I-O, the dragon swooped out of the sky, gulped down the cow, and swallowed it whole.” This continues as the pig and ram both give the farmer the same type of speech. When the dragon swallows Roscoe the dog, the farmer finally has enough.
To add to the humor, at least for the adult reader, each time the dragon swallows an animal he makes some sort of lip licking comment like “delicious dairy” or “savory swine.” Additionally, the dragon is swallowing the animals without chewing them and grows larger and larger with each animal. When he swallows the cow, he flies away. By the time it got the sheep, the whole herd of them, he “wilted its wings and waddled away.”
We have had a lot of fun with this book. I read it to J, I read it to E, J read it to E, this one has gotten a lot of play in the last two weeks. There was great repetition, fun singing the song that we all know by heart, and the book was just plain silly, ending with the whole gang being burped out in a slimy heap. When reading it to E, it was also a great opportunity for her to ask questions about unknown words – “what’s dairy?” This would be an awesome book to read during story time or just when you want a good laugh with your kids.
I normally hate repetitive picture books but this one looks fun!