Over in the Meadow

by Jan Thornhill (Adapter), Olive A. Wadsworth

Jan Thornhill's trademark ingenuity brings this well-loved 19th century rhyme to a new audience in a captivating and original way.
Jan has created a magical imaginary world made up of everyday A forest of broccoli, a beaver dam of pretzels, a dragonfly with paperclip wings... Who could have thought berries, twist-ties, light bulbs, garden gloves, and rubber bands could be transformed into such unimagined delights?
As always with Jan Thornhill's books, young readers can pore for hours over the intricacies of a seemingly simple story. Not only will they learn about counting, rhyming, animals, and nature, but kids will also delight in picking out recognizable everyday objects used in ingenious new ways in the illustrations on these pages. Pages at the back of the book show the original elements used in the creation of the illustrations—readers can then go back and play eye-spy.
Hand-drawn text with some rebus elements help the youngest reader to learn and delight in words. Ten spreads show different parts of the meadow and introduce a different animal and a new action verb.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Storytime

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2004

About the author

I was born in 1955 in Sudbury, but spent most of my childhood in southern Ontario where, encouraged by my artist mother and engineer/inventor father, I developed a life-long passion for both art and the natural world. I spent a lot of time exploring the fields, woods, ponds, and streams near where I lived, and was an avid collector of things I found. I brought home all kinds of treasures – skulls and fossils, bird feathers and empty nests, insects, snake skins, fallen leaves. Eventually I labeled everything and made a museum in the basement. I thought I’d get rich by charging a 5¢ entry fee…but my mum was the only one who paid!

After high school, I attended the Ontario College of Art where I had fun making experimental films and videos – not drawing and painting. For about ten years after that, I illustrated freelance for magazines and newspapers, and did odd jobs such as sewing thousands of beads and sequins on Dolly Parton’s dresses. Finally, in the late eighties, I switched to the much richer life of creating children’s books. From the beginning, the aim of these wildlife-based books has been to foster in young readers a love of art, nature and the environment.

I live in the Kawarthas in a house in the woods that my husband and I built. As well as making books, I grow organic vegetables, raise a few chickens each year, make bread from captured wild yeast, and wander around in the woods looking for wild mushrooms, slime molds, beetles and animal skulls. A lot of the things I find – skulls, snake skins, desiccated insects, a mummified bat & hummingbirds, etc. – have made their way into what I call my “museum-in-a-bag,” a collection of natural treasures I share with kids when I visit schools. I’m an obsessive observer of the world around me, so much so that I consider a day I haven’t learned something to be a day wasted.

Reviews

[Chelsey Hookenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book! So fun to read and the pictures are fantastic. My children and I love looking at all the different items used to make the pictures. It's so creative and sweet. This is one of my favourite books to read.

[Sharlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

PENDING REVIEW
3.70 - Average

[Chris Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best picture book ever!! We’d give it 6 stars! Once we realized what was so special about the pictures we couldn’t stop laughing.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only is the book educational in teaching little ones about rhyming and counting but children will delight in "seeking and finding" baby animals, plus discovering many familiar items incorporated in beautiful, illustrated photographs. I liked Jan Thornhill's unique and imaginative approach to a familiar, favorite story. A vibrant, delightful 'feast to the eyes' (from slippers to brown sugar) and fun time for every preschooler.

[Shaley Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so cool! I love the book and the pictures make it even better. The pictures are differnt objects. At the end of the book you actually get to find the objects like a seek and find. This would be a great book for any young child to read.

[Genalin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 4 year old daughter loves this book.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun one!

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gates were made of bread. The trees were made of broccoli. The bird's nest was made of rope. The beavers house was made of pretzels and the grass was made out of combs. The firefly was made out of chocolate, a nail and the turtles were made out of shells. The fish were made out of money and fans. The owl was made out of leaves. The rats were made out of worms, flush and people hands. The bees were made out of nails, shoelaces and the birds were made out of paper, carrots. The frogs were made out of leaves, plastic and buttons. The lizards were made out of leaves, beans and candy and pom poms. The ducks were made out of shovels, carrots and flowers but the mama duck was made out of a sock. The beavers were made out of dirt, people's hands and ties and olives. - age 6

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

My five-year-old son picked this book out from the library this week. He still like his counting books.

Over in the Meadow is a great song, but this is not my favorite adaptation of it. The text is difficult to read and the illustrations, while ingenious, are a bit weird and at times scary.

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

classic rhyme, accented by photographs of objects used to create animals. too busy for me---really complex. older kids may enjoy but the girls were just "hmn" with it.