MISS MACDONALD HAS A FARM

Move over, Old MacDonald: The hardworking Miss MacDonald has a green thumb and plenty of plants.

This tale follows the same cadence as the familiar song but replaces the opening lines with “Miss MacDonald has a farm. / She loves things that grow.” Instead of caring for pastures full of animals, Miss MacDonald grows food, “with a water-water here” and a “drip-drop there.” Once her bounty is ready, the titular farmer harvests her crops and cooks up a feast for her friends. Caregivers and educators will find the bouncy text fun to sing, but it’s also readable if that’s preferred. Gwarjanski employs rich vocabulary words such as shuck, tubers, and thresh, many of which are defined in an appended glossary. Miss MacDonald has brown skin and wears oversized, orange-tinted sunglasses, a wide-brimmed hat, tall socks, and gardening clogs. On every page she tirelessly tends to her plants, while the accompanying illustrations feature vibrant, true-to-life depictions of seedlings, vines, and stalks. This is a delightful update that centers a woman and encourages readers to consider how the foods they love appear on the table. Those who want to follow Miss MacDonald’s worthy example should check out the recipe for a harvest vegetable bake in the backmatter.

This beloved nursery rhyme gets a fresh and meaningful modernization.