PETE AND POLO’S FARMYARD ADVENTURE

The boy and the stuffed polar bear from Pete and Polo’s Big School Adventure (2000) take a trip to Grandpa’s farm. It happens that on this day, ten ducklings have gone missing: their waterhole has dried up. Polo mentions to Pete that the ducklings must be thirsty, so they go in search of all the liquid locales on the farm. They find a couple of ducklings in the dog’s water bowl, and a few more at the pump. There’s another in the watering can and another under the old tap and more still in the pig’s trough. After all ten have been located—this can be read as a counting primer—they all disappear again when Pete goes off to tell Grandpa that he has found the fowl. That’s because Polo has taken them inside for a bath in the kitchen sink. Grandpa gets the hose and fills their little pond and all is right again in their world. Reynolds’s depictions of the English farm are lovely, with all its implements and enclosed fields and outbuildings, and he also ably conveys the pleasures of a day in the country. He makes it real that this is the kind of adventure a kid could have on his own, inviting a free association with Pete. (Picture book. 3-6)