Jean-Francois Dumont
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Eerdmans, 2014, 978-0-8028-5470-4
Every year the sheep are sheared and every fall they feel
pretty chilly without their woolly fleeces. Some of them even get colds, and then
they have to be seen by the vet, and we all know what happens when the vet
comes; the sheep have to “swallow disgusting medicine and get shots.” After
years of putting up with this state of affairs, the sheep have decided that
they have had enough. None of the other farm animals get sheared for their fur,
so why should the sheep put up with this treatment? There is only one thing to
do: the sheep go on strike.
The sheepdog,
Ralph, tries to round up the sheep and ends up having to run for it. The sheep are
in no mood to be pushed around. On the farm some of the animals sympathize with
the sheep, while others think that the sheep should stick to “tradition”
because “that was how it was supposed to be.”
The next day the
sheep get ready to march on the road that runs from the end of the meadow to
the goose pond. The farm animals watch as the sheepdogs from the neighboring
farms gather for a meeting at Ralph’s doghouse. Afraid that they will lose
their jobs, the dogs are determined to do what they can to stop the strike. No
one imagines that the march and the kerfuffle that follows will cause a
terrible schism to develop between the farm animals.
We live in a
world where people are often all too willing to resort to violence when things
are not going their way. In this picture book we see how animals on a farm find
themselves following this all too familiar human pattern until good sense
prevails and they discover that there is always another way to solve a problem.
A compromise offers them a solution that is clever, and for us readers,
deliciously funny.
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