To Market, To Market takes an old Mother Goose nursery rhyme and turns it into a delightfully absurd story.
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun
Home again, home again, market is done
That's how the old nursery rhyme goes. But this delightful picture book goes further, turning an old woman's trip to the market into a disaster of hilariously epic proportions!
$7.99
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Our fearless shopper starts with an innocent trip to the market to buy a fat pig - a very fat, very live pig! Depositing him at home, she returns to the market for a nice red hen, but upon arriving home she finds that "that pig left the pen!" Each subsequent trip to the market, for a plump goose, a live trout, a spring lamb, a milking cow, a white duck, and even a stubborn goat, finds a little more chaos upon her return home, as her growing zoo wreaks havoc on her kitchen and once orderly home.
Our extremely frazzled shopper declares in despair, "I'm a shopping disgrace! Everything's running all over the place! The pig's in the kitchen. The lamb's on the bed. The cow's on the couch. There's a duck on my head." After categorizing the rest of the disasters in her house, she exclaims, "This place is a zoo! I'm hungry, I'm cranky - now what will I do?"
Finally, along with her new menage of animal friends, she returns to the market to fill her shopping basket not with more live animals, but with all the fixin's for a delicious vegetable stew, which she then shares with her new friends, and they all pass out in contentment on the wrecked kitchen floor.
Anne Miranda and Janet Stevens
Anne Miranda is a Caldecott award-winning children's book author with many wonderful books to her credit. Janet Stevens is also an award-winning children's book author and illustrator.
The collaboration of Ms. Miranda and Ms. Stevens on this irresistible book is nothing short of delightful. You won't be able to turn to the next page until your child has found all of the mischief the obstreperous animals have wrought upon our poor old woman's kitchen.
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Though this picture book is by no means advocacy for vegetarianism, I believe that vegetarians will find and enjoy an extra layer of meaning when the frazzled shopper returns to the market to purchase ingredients for a vegetable stew, which she then shares with her animal friends.
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All book reviews on this page are personal favorites of my family!
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