Among the Farmyard People

Among the People #3

by Clara Dillingham Pierson, F.C. Gordon (Illustrator)

Introduces young children to the animals of the farmyard through a series of engaging stories about the sheep, chickens, cows, and horses that live there. With new animals arriving regularly, we make the acquaintance also of a pig and a peacock, as well as some ducks and guinea fowls. Each story closes with a gentle moral, inspiring children to right behavior. Attractive black and white illustrations complement the text. Suitable for ages 5 and up.

Genres: Science, Classics, Childrens, Science Nature, Audiobook, Animals

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1899

About the author

Clara Dillingham Pierson (d. 1952) was an early 20th century American children's author. Her most popular works were quasi-naturalistic stories about animals. Her Among the People series of animal story collections, published between 1897 and 1902, placed her among the leading nature-story authors of her day. Like similar animal tales written a few years later by Thornton Burgess, her stories often carried a moral.

Another of her series featured the adventures of the three Miller children who live in a house called Pencroft, named for Pierson's summer home in Omena, Michigan. She built it with her income as a writer.

Reviews

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars & 4/10 hearts. I love Pierson's books! They're well written, interesting, and educational; full of morals, but not preachy at all--just naturally teaching stuff from the little stories. My siblings really enjoy listening to the stories as well. I would have loved these as a kid; I still really like them as an adult! The characters are so fun and varied and interesting and sweet. (I love the Blind Horse, and some of the hens/cocks are so awesome, and I loved the Dappled Grey and the two Ox!!). Highly recommend this book!

A Favourite Quote: "I've just made up my mind that the people who won't do hard things, when they ought to, have the hardest times in the end."
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: "Truly it was a day to make one laugh aloud for joy. The alder tassels fluttered and danced in the spring breeze, while the smallest and shyest of the willow pussies crept from their little brown houses on the branches to grow in the sunshine."
A Favourite Humorous Quote: "I knew a sitting Hen once who wanted to see everything that happened. She was always running out to see somebody or other, and sometimes she stayed longer than she meant to. I told her she'd better stick to her nest, and she said she didn't believe in working all the time."
"How soon did her Chickens hatch?" ....
"Never did hatch, of course," chuckled the Nigh Ox. "She .... [w]ent around talking about her great disappointment, and said she couldn't see why the other Hens had so much better luck."
The Off Ox chuckled. "He told her that he guessed it might have been something besides bad luck, and that the next time she'd better stay on her nest more. Then she asked him how many broods of Chickens he had hatched."

[Bethanyanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read with my son for kindergarten. It was such a sweet and delightful book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books for children. There are moral lessons conveyed in each story, but they are subtle and more meaningful than the usual trite "Be honest" or "It's best to share" fare. The writing is very high quality and I enjoyed reading them as much as my kids enjoyed hearing them.

[Mrs R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Among the Farmyard People aloud to my children. This book is a collection of short stories about different farmyard animals (called "people"). There is a life lesson to be learned from each story - this was nice, because my children and I sometimes discussed these lessons and applied them to personal situations. In the stories, there are often facts and details included about the animals. This made it interesting for further study of what we had just read. For example, after reading the story about the peacock, we watched a video of a peacock opening up its feathers. Also, after reading about the sheep, we watched videos of people shearing sheep. For the most part, an entertaining read.

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book we will be reading for Kindergarten this year so I was pre-reading and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I really appreciate how it does not talk down to the children but includes them in the stories.

Each story is about a different animal(s) on the farm. Detailed it’s attributes both physically but more importantly behaviors that can be likened to humans and their behaviors. Every story has something that of course the children know, which is cleverly done because it has a way of making you listen. I don’t know if I’m describing it well, but it is little treasure of stories that are also good life lessons. It’ll be fun to read the rest of the series. Even I learned a lot.

[Karyn Tripp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a darling series of books for children. We love the little animal stories and the moral lessons woven throughout them. I also love that they are teaching my children so much about the animals as we read about them.

[Kate Insley · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of our favorites to listen to in the van, or when we need to calm down before bed 💚

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book for homeschool nature study.

[Jennifer Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me and my children are huge fans and will now read everything written by this author.

[Jessica Perteet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Jacob’s third term nature reader which I read to both him and Lucy. They both loved it! I also used Simple Studies for extra coloring pages and YouTube video links.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story of life on the farm among the farm animals. As well as a new lesson/moral taught within each chapter. A great read for children.

[Johannes Kristian · Rating 2 out of 5]

it had a lot of stories about animals that talked.