At Home on the Farm Ned Barraud

At Home on the Farm   
Ned Barraud                                          

At Home on the Farm

 Ned Barraud 

Scholastic (2025) 

Picture book, Paperback, 24 pages 

 ISBN 978 1 77543 909 7 

 ‘At home on the farm, it’s as dry as a bone.’ 

Ned Barraud, already renowned as an illustrator, has written an enthralling account in verse of a farm in the grip of a drought. His account moves across the parched farm paddocks, like scenes from a film, showing the various animals and birds and how they cope with the heat. 

‘At home on the farm, the dogs’ work is done. Now they are snoozing out in the sun, itching and scratching, in the heat of the day. while blowflies are buzzing about where they lay.’ 

Of course, Ned Barraud’s illustrations are a perfect match for his lyrical words. Each double-page spread shows a typical group of animals or birds responding to the heat of the day. The horses and sheep shelter from the sun in the shade of trees. The magpies are strutting on the bone-dry paddock. A cat hunts mice in the hayshed and a red admiral butterfly lands by some gorse blooms. A shade-seeking hare shelters behind a fencepost. 

The story opens with a kāhu (harrier hawk) flying above the farm at dawn, silhouetted against the blazing sun. ‘Against a fierce sun kāhu circles alone.’ 

The conclusion comes at evening as the hawk soars before a dark bank of clouds sweeping towards the farm. ‘The skies open up and …FINALLY … it pours!’ 

At Home on the Farm offers an original approach to a familiar topic, enabling young readers to experience the extremes of weather and the change of seasons. Its magnificent illustrations offer readers an inviting open door to a vividly depicted landscape. 

Young readers may get their first inklings of the impact of climate change by reading this book. 

 Trevor Agnew 
 3 June 2025 [Review 3779]