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Summary
Summary
Meet Taylor McNamara: She's twelve. She's a city girl. But her parents have just moved her to a sheep farm in the middle of nowhere. Meet the farm animals: forty chickens, twenty sheep, ten ducks, and four goats, one of which can pee on his own head. Meet the principal and kids in Taylor's new school: Kids tease her about her ugly barn boots and the chicken poop in her hair, yet they admire her pluck. Taylor struggles to adapt to her new life, but finds it hard to adjust to the farm's daily surprises, especially those that prove to be embarrassing at school. With the help of her friend Megan, Taylor embarks on a nearly disastrous plan to move her family back to the city. But one lonely night, in the barn, Taylor discovers that farming isn't all bad.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Twelve-year-old Taylor McNamara has just been uprooted from her city life (and the Mall of America) in Minneapolis to a farm with runaway sheep, smelly goats, and chickens that poop on her head-right before the start of the new school year. Although she faces a string of farm mishaps, the girls at her new school admire her poise (helped by a fair share of blind luck) when faced with dress code trouble on the first day. Nevertheless, stuck on the farm with no cable TV, no friends, and itchy chores, Taylor is not only homesick, but "friendsick," and even "schoolsick." Her new pals hatch a plan to get Taylor off the farm, with an unexpected result. Although the plot has some implausible situations, listeners will probably not notice. Friend's story (Amazon Children's Pub., 2011) is humorous and refreshingly free of angst and whining. Kate Rudd's voice is perfect as the first-person narrator. She varies her tone just enough for each character, and her breezy delivery parallels the story line. An enjoyable listen for tween fans of realistic fiction.-Jane Newschwander, Fluvanna County Public Schools, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Twelve-year-old Taylor is discombobulated: "a great word, but it's not really a great feeling." Her family has just moved from Minneapolis to a farm, and so far city girl Taylor is not exactly fond of farm life. On the first day of school, for example, she accidentally shows up wearing disgusting barn boots. Subsequent embarrassments include failing to notice chicken poop in her hair, bleeding from a duck attack, and reeking of goat -- incidents that will make readers cringe in sympathy. A new friend devises TEFF (Taylor Escapes From Farm), a plan in which Taylor acts out at school to convince her parents that moving was a mistake. Farm life is harder than Taylor's mom expected, so when her parents find out Taylor's been failing tests and accumulating demerits, they agree to sell the farm -- just as Taylor is beginning to realize how much she actually likes it. In this refreshingly compact novel, readers learn interesting, authentic details about everything from spinning wool to collecting eggs to -- in a kind-of-gross, kind-of-wonderful climax -- birthing lambs. In Taylor, Friend has created a plucky, lightly sarcastic protagonist whose frustration at her situation is palpable but who never comes off as unlikable or bratty. Readers will root for her as she slowly becomes "combobulated" in her new home. rachel l. smith (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
(Fiction. 10-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
