Tuesday Treasure
"One day on his way home, Farmer Brown forgot to close the gate to Daisy's field."
Off she goes on an adventure. The townspeople see her on top of a building. The television people arrive with the fire brigade. Sadly for Daisy at the end of this first adventure she is taken back to the farm BUT some one saw her on television. A film producer arrives at the farm and declares he will make Daisy into a movie star. Farmer Brown agrees Daisy can go but she must come back. Daisy is lifted onto a ship and taken to Hollywood.
"She acted in many films and soon became a big star ... She even appeared in a bubble bath advertisement."
The high life, though, is not quite perfect. Daisy is given rich foods like caviar and jelly when she really longs for fresh grass and water. She begins to grow thin so the producer makes one more film called "Daisy come home" and he flies her back to Farmer Brown.
Everything about this book is exquisite. The emotional trajectory of the story, the mixed media art work in the illustrations, the book design with half pages that lift to reveal a scene and of course the very satisfying happy ending. I do wonder why my former library decided to discard this beautiful book. If you have Daisy in your library please read it and keep it and share it with as many children as you can. If you are not familiar with the art of Brian Wildsmith take a look here.
Daisy was first published in 1984 (the year I became a teacher) and the great news is you can still buy this book in either hardcover or paperback.
Daisy is a 'grass is greener on the other side' story. Other books to compare with daisy are:
Once upon a small Rhinoceros by Meg McKinlay
Wendy by Gus Gordon
Louise the adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo
With a group of older students I would compare Daisy with Sammy Streetsinger by Charles Keeping.
1 comment:
And The Cow Who Fell in the Canal! All good for growth mindset.
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