Nerd Dads Review: FUNNY FARM

At first glance, this book appeared to be too young for The Kid™. The pictures are big and friendly, as expected from the artist from the "How Do Dinosaurs...?" series, Mark Teague, but there aren't a lot of words on the pages. In fact, the book averages a sentence for every two-page spread. However, once we sat down to read FUNNY FARM, Daddy's off-the-cuff judgment of the book was quickly and decisively proven wrong.

FUNNY FARM, written as well as painted by Teague, has proven to be a popular title in the Nerd Dads, CA library. While the text may be slight, Teague's illustrations are anything but, and rather than breezing through the book quickly, we tend to pore over the details on just about every page. In fact, my daughter often requests that we go back a page or two so that she can take in all the details. At this point, rather than any favorite characters, she has favorite pages, especially the "play in the puddle" scene.

There may not be a lot in this book for parents - it's not written to be layered with subtle things that only an older person would understand - but it is a total joy to read with your little one. There's just the right amount of words per page that I imagine it'll also end up being one of the first books my daughter can actually read on her own, and that's pretty much exactly what we're looking for as she turns three in about a month.

FUNNY FARM will be released by Orchard Books on April 1, 2009.