I’m reading today from a new book it’s called Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond with illustrations by Laura Bryant. And as you may have guessed this is a takeoff on Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and Jo is Old MacDonald’s granddaughter, and she’s introducing children to the wildlife that is part of a pond ecosystem. And I like to bring the book’s mascot into schools with me. This is a frog, and the kids have to look for the frog when he appears and make his noise which is croak, croak.
So here go. Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond, oh and there’s the frog. And this first illustration actually Jo and her grandfather going down to the pond. What’s fun with this book is to have the kids themselves sing the refrain E-I-E-I-O.
Jo MacDonald saw a pond E-I-E-I-O. And in that she saw some wreathes, E-I-E-I-O. With a swish, swish here and a swish, swish there here a swish, there a swish everywhere a swish, swish. Jo MacDonald saw a pond. E-I-E-I-O.
So the first part of an ecosystem of course are the plants. And then in that pond she saw some fish, E-I-E-I-O with a blurp, blurp here and a blurp, blurp there, here a blurp, there a blurp everywhere a blurp, blurp. Jo MacDonald saw some fish. E-I-E-I-O.
And Laura Bryant the illustrator did such a wonderful job with the pictures of the book. I’ll just point out a few things that she’s done. She introduces the new animal, you see it clearly, this case it’s the fish but she also has the old thing in the background, the wreathes and there’s a hint of the things come, so we had talked a little earlier about interacting, having kids interact with the book so with this particular kids can make the sound of the animals, they can make the E-I-E-I-O refrain.
And in the pictures they can look for the animal that might be next to come. And it’s the frog. And in that pond she saw a frog E-I-E-I-O. With a croak, croak here and a croak, croak there, here a croak, there a croak everywhere a croak, croak. Jo MacDonald saw a frog E-I-E-I-O. And then you see the frogs prominently at this point.
And look there’s the next animal coming and it’s a duck hiding in the plants. And I’m going to skip forward and just
This is towards the end of the book, all the time that Jo has been at the pond, she’s been there with a pen or pencil and some paper but the young reader doesn’t know what she’s been doing and it’s not until the end that her grandfather comes on the scene that she shows him she’s been drawing pictures of what she’s seen at the pond. So the fish, the frog, the wreathes, all are in Jo’s little picture.
And what Laura the illustrator did with this illustration I think is just delightful. She shows, or she draws in a way that’s very childlike to show how Jo might have drawn the pictures and also the young reader or the little listener has to find each of the things and match them up with the sound that they make. So again it’s another way of adding another layer of interactive experience to the book.
I had such a good time writing the back matter for the book. The publisher for this book is Dawn and they’re a small publisher that’s very dedicated to creating books that connect children with the natural world. And a big part of their mission is to provide information that is child friendly that teaches kids a little bit more about the natural world.
And this is helpful for kids but also for parents and teachers that might want to share additional information with kids. So for this particular book, there are short descriptions of each of the animals and things that are part of the pond ecosystem. There’s also a list of books and websites that are very child friendly that can share a little bit more information about ponds.
And activities that parents and teachers and kids can do together. How to be a naturalist like Jo. So there’s some classroom activities and home activities as well as things that you can do outdoors. So I had a great time writing this book.