Johnny Crow's Party

by L. Leslie Brooke

Johnny Crow plies rake and hoe to improve his garden. The other animals all come to his party and leave with a hearty vote of praise.

Genres: Picture Books

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1903

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another visit with Johnny Crow and his animal friends. This time we are having a party in Johnny's famous garden. We meet new creatures like a seal and a cockatoo, even a flounder! My favorite here is the armadillo who uses the sleeping sheep as a pillow.

Another simple rhyming story with wonderful illustrations (many of which have extra stories going on in the background) and a garden that gets more filled with energetic company on every page. Here is the link to the Gutenberg edition http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10557/...

[Mathew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet little rhyming book by Brooke. They Johnny Crow books achieved fame during the 30s and 40s and were both drawn and written by Brooke.

In her article on her time at Bumpus, Eleanor Graham met Brooke who told her of the story's origins. Brooke shared how after breakfast on Sunday mornings his father would begin a rhyme with his sons (Johnny Crow would dig and sow until...) and the boys would have to complete the rhyme. The books themselves then were an accumulation of these 'strings of rhymes'.

Brooke's father himself claimed to have obtained the idea from 'an old cottage woman in Ireland'. Graham was enamored by Brooke's 'benevolent' style and I am too.

[GoldGato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johnny Crow worked his toosh off to create a majestic garden, using rake and hoe. Thus, Leonard Leslie Brooke begins one of his classic children's tales centering around the different animal friends invited to Johnny's garden party. Brooke is able to place expressions on the faces of these good-souled animals that make you look twice (the goose reminded me of one of my neighbors).

Small book for small hands, is this edition, and a right lovely one it is, too.


Book Season = Year Round

[J. Boo]

Johnny Crow is back, with a party for his fellow animals held in his newly enlarged garden. Fun, extremely detailed, and humorous illustrations, with rhyming text. As usual, Johnny is an exceptionally polite and kind host.

I'm glad I found this before DD(6) entirely aged out. Not quite as good as the first book in the series, but still a great read -- and a great look. Illustrations are not to be missed. Vocabulary is a bit complex, so you might need to explain a few words if you are reading this to someone young. This is small child's book from 1910, and the expected vocabulary of a small child in 1910 was large.

Available on archive.org, though some editions are not downloadable. You may have to click around a bit to hit one that is.

[Nina AJG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another delightful romp in Johnny Crow's garden. Apparently no other animal has such a nice place to visit, so he always gets lumbered being host to accident prone, pompous beasts who don't notice the Don't Sleep On The Flowers signs. This and Johnny Crow's Garden (pub. 1903 and 1907 respectively) were given to my dad on his fifth birthday from his grandmother, books already 50 years old in 1956. I remember them well from when I was a small child, still on the bookshelf outside my dad's room at his parents' house. They've since been well loved, and have lost their spines, but the beautiful illustrations remain intact. I must remember to look up more of L. (for Leonard) Leslie Brooke's illustrations in other books around the house while I'm here.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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