What do you think?
Rate this book
Big red barn
Rhymed text and illustrations introduce the many different animals that live in the big red barn.
32 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1989
42 people are currently reading
2974 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Wise Brown
393 books1,210 followersMargaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well.
Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.
She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.
She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.
Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.
Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.
She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.
She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.
Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 396 reviews
July 25, 2013
Another book has migrated downstairs for my review. Before I wrote this review, I had to do a little research on the author. I vaguely remembered that she had no children and died young -- I was right: she never married, had no children and died of a post-surgery blood clot in 1952 at the age of 42. Yet her work lives on in a big way. Why?
Big Red Barn, like Goodnight Moon, reads like a lullaby. It is about impossible to not lull your voice when reading it. Its phrases end with a gentle rhyme, not forced-feeling rhyming couplets. And, also like Goodnight Moon, as the book winds down, the phrases become shorter until they just disappear and the story is over. That's why an adult at a child's bedtime would like. Why a toddler likes it, I don't know. It could be the animal noises interspersed in the story. It could be the lullaby effect of the book. It could be anything. I just know that my toddler likes it.
Felicia Bond is very well-known for her illustrations in the "If You Give..." series, and rightfully so. Her pictures brim with personality, color and humor. None of those qualities are lost in this edition of Margaret Wise Brown's classic.
Big Red Barn, like Goodnight Moon, reads like a lullaby. It is about impossible to not lull your voice when reading it. Its phrases end with a gentle rhyme, not forced-feeling rhyming couplets. And, also like Goodnight Moon, as the book winds down, the phrases become shorter until they just disappear and the story is over. That's why an adult at a child's bedtime would like. Why a toddler likes it, I don't know. It could be the animal noises interspersed in the story. It could be the lullaby effect of the book. It could be anything. I just know that my toddler likes it.
Felicia Bond is very well-known for her illustrations in the "If You Give..." series, and rightfully so. Her pictures brim with personality, color and humor. None of those qualities are lost in this edition of Margaret Wise Brown's classic.
February 20, 2025
Classic. This will be a Hullman household staple. #dadmode
January 15, 2010
Big Red Barn is one of those baby books that provokes either charm or annoyance in adult readers, and delight in young listeners. It is marked by Brown's soothingly rhythmic, repetitive text, sprinkled with farmyard animal noises that toddlers will love to imitate. The story opens with "a pink pig/ who was learning to squeal" greeting the sunrise. Other farm animals go about their activities throughout the day, and (just as in Goodnight Moon) the pictures become progressively darker as night falls on the barn.
This classic board book is brightly illustrated, interactive and soothing. It's a good fit for both preverbal toddlers and children who are just beginning to understand how story events progress in sequence. It's a very nice choice for both boys and girls.
This classic board book is brightly illustrated, interactive and soothing. It's a good fit for both preverbal toddlers and children who are just beginning to understand how story events progress in sequence. It's a very nice choice for both boys and girls.
August 15, 2012
"Big Red Barn" by Margaret Wise Brown was a really good book, and my daughter enjoyed it immensely. As a parent, I take great joy when I see my daughter really enjoying what I read and recognizing the pictures that she sees on the page. She was able to identify all the animals, and even wanted to know "Where they mama at?"
The author did a really good job of displaying a lot of colors in this book too. I think that really helps children as they are learning to read because all the bright colors catches their eye, and they want to know more.
I give it 5 stars.
The author did a really good job of displaying a lot of colors in this book too. I think that really helps children as they are learning to read because all the bright colors catches their eye, and they want to know more.
I give it 5 stars.
February 19, 2024
boring. i have pretty high standards as a professional children’s reader, so that’s sayin somethin. but good enough miss margaret. lots of love from port rowan ontario 🫶
April 25, 2013
If you can get past the racy scene with the Scarecrow and his "ho," this is a pretty solid story of some animals doing their thing on a farm. While there is no central hero for whom to root, the overall character development is pretty solid. I truly enjoyed counting all of the eggs. SPOILER ALERT: There are 10 in total.
September 22, 2024
I made the mistake of reciting this one without the book in front of me one time, the child noticed, so now I’m a court jester. I do the animal sounds because I take this shit seriously.
May 13, 2019
Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown has been a truly influential book on my life. Not only is the story extremely cute, but I feel like it has one of the most important lessons for children to take away; animals are amazing. Animals are complex and sentient. They feel loneliness and sadness, as they do love and joy. I feel like this book really shows children that all animals, whether they be a piglet or a fat cow, deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. This entire book and its very simple, heartwarming plot almost demonstrates a utopia of farms, with all the animals happy and living in a perfect, open field.
I gave this book 5 stars because I feel like this book has a really deep connection to my life today. I try to live my life in accordance with the themes and messages in this book, and I feel like my passion for animals and being compassionate arose from reading this book as a child. Although the pictures and the plot are fairly simple and uneventful, I believe that the simplicity is the most enjoyable part of the book.
I would recommend this book to any child, because every child should grow up into compassionate people that care for others, no matter who or what they may be.
I gave this book 5 stars because I feel like this book has a really deep connection to my life today. I try to live my life in accordance with the themes and messages in this book, and I feel like my passion for animals and being compassionate arose from reading this book as a child. Although the pictures and the plot are fairly simple and uneventful, I believe that the simplicity is the most enjoyable part of the book.
I would recommend this book to any child, because every child should grow up into compassionate people that care for others, no matter who or what they may be.
December 18, 2021
But in this story the children are away.
Only the animals are here today.
Only the animals are here today.
Welcome to a day in the life of a farm animal that lives in the big red barn. I've been reading books by Margaret Wise Brown from time to time. Sometimes I wish I'd read them when I was a boy in the summertime. The only thing that matters about living in a barn is that each animal has a part to play.
Read
July 10, 2009totally, totally, a fave
February 7, 2021
I love this book so much more than “Goodnight Moon” or “Runaway Rabbit.” The content is richer, though the rhyming is still a little lacking. The illustrations make the book—they are wonderful!
January 17, 2024
This has been one of those books from our childhood that always stood out to me and was rather a favorite of mine - probably so since of the beautiful golden weather vane of a pegasus.
Anyway the one that I read when I was a child was the one illustrated by Felicia Bond, which is most definitely brightly colored and the animals hold just a bit of a cartoonish leaning to their realistic portrayal. In trying to find a copy to re-read, though, I did come across the 1961 edition that was illustrated by Rosella Hartman. And so I would just like to compare the two of them....
Although in the Rosella version the book does contain colors it is the more muted colors and range of an older book. The animals are more realistically portrayed but so many of them have been colored in with just the basic sketching of a pencil while other pictures are shown in the black-and-white coloring scheme that sometimes the details tend to blend in with the background instead of actual standing out unless a color is added to make an individual pop.
Another noticeable difference among the two versions is the fact that the older book starts off with the barn besides a pond that is under a rising sun while the much younger book starts off later in the day after the sun has risen and is standing by a cornfield. Another noticeable difference is the notable weathervane of my childhood isn't rightly portrayed with Rosella's basically being a white horse with no wings even though the text mentions otherwise.
To me I also enjoyed the fact that Rosella did include so much more animal life and just life in general in her version. The hay piles have toys strewn all around them, their are a lot more animals to see in the background in the 1961 edition, which means the book is slightly longer, while Felicia's same scene only has a toy bucket with shovel to showcase the "children" while the only animals you see are the two aforementioned horses and a duck peeking around the corner. For me another example of this difference can also be found on the next page when the Margaret Wise Brown's words mention "The sheep and the donkey...." as Rosella has a small flock of sheep while Felicia Bond translate the words to just one individual sheep.
The part that discusses about a mouse being born in the cornfield, though, is much better portrayed by a two-page close-up viewed spread by Felicia although technically not being the right location for a mouse to be born nor in the right age while the mouse seems to be lost in translation for the older book. Weirdly enough it also does look like there is a fish at the bottom of the cornstalk while the mice themselves are mere abstractions instead of the right portrayal.
Part of the text is taken away from the brown cow scene in the Bond telling while again the animals are trimmed down to the bare minimum in comparison. But I do like how in the portrayal of the Felicia Bond's cats and dogs you have the tomcat jumping out the window while the young animals are combining together with one kitten hanging out with mama dog and a few puppies rounding out Mama's cat's clowder.
Another interesting aspect between the two in the part that reads:
The little black bats flew away
Out of the barn at the end of day.
The hens were sleeping on their nests.
Even the roosters took rest.
In the Rosella version you have the above paragraph while in the Felicia Bond version the paragraph is switched so that you have the hens sleeping as the bats fly away.
In the younger version the book breaks down the next paragraph to give a cutaway view in which you see all the animals in their own stalls and then the following spread shows a focal of the big red barn at night before wrapping up. Yet when you read Rosella's version there are two more paragraphs added that aren't seen in the Bond version.
The actual text from the author is simple and basic as Margaret Wise Brown's works normally are but they share an emotional attachment to the land even while helping the reader to wind down thus making for an ideal bed time story. The characters are all the animals and even though they aren't shown with personalities the illustrations do a great job in helping to round out that particular version to the reader.
Whether you go with the 1961 longer and more detailed version under Rosella Hartman or you go with the brightly colored and a bit more cartoonish Bond version you cannot go wrong as most children love animals on the farm.
Anyway the one that I read when I was a child was the one illustrated by Felicia Bond, which is most definitely brightly colored and the animals hold just a bit of a cartoonish leaning to their realistic portrayal. In trying to find a copy to re-read, though, I did come across the 1961 edition that was illustrated by Rosella Hartman. And so I would just like to compare the two of them....
Although in the Rosella version the book does contain colors it is the more muted colors and range of an older book. The animals are more realistically portrayed but so many of them have been colored in with just the basic sketching of a pencil while other pictures are shown in the black-and-white coloring scheme that sometimes the details tend to blend in with the background instead of actual standing out unless a color is added to make an individual pop.
Another noticeable difference among the two versions is the fact that the older book starts off with the barn besides a pond that is under a rising sun while the much younger book starts off later in the day after the sun has risen and is standing by a cornfield. Another noticeable difference is the notable weathervane of my childhood isn't rightly portrayed with Rosella's basically being a white horse with no wings even though the text mentions otherwise.
To me I also enjoyed the fact that Rosella did include so much more animal life and just life in general in her version. The hay piles have toys strewn all around them, their are a lot more animals to see in the background in the 1961 edition, which means the book is slightly longer, while Felicia's same scene only has a toy bucket with shovel to showcase the "children" while the only animals you see are the two aforementioned horses and a duck peeking around the corner. For me another example of this difference can also be found on the next page when the Margaret Wise Brown's words mention "The sheep and the donkey...." as Rosella has a small flock of sheep while Felicia Bond translate the words to just one individual sheep.
The part that discusses about a mouse being born in the cornfield, though, is much better portrayed by a two-page close-up viewed spread by Felicia although technically not being the right location for a mouse to be born nor in the right age while the mouse seems to be lost in translation for the older book. Weirdly enough it also does look like there is a fish at the bottom of the cornstalk while the mice themselves are mere abstractions instead of the right portrayal.
Part of the text is taken away from the brown cow scene in the Bond telling while again the animals are trimmed down to the bare minimum in comparison. But I do like how in the portrayal of the Felicia Bond's cats and dogs you have the tomcat jumping out the window while the young animals are combining together with one kitten hanging out with mama dog and a few puppies rounding out Mama's cat's clowder.
Another interesting aspect between the two in the part that reads:
The little black bats flew away
Out of the barn at the end of day.
The hens were sleeping on their nests.
Even the roosters took rest.
In the Rosella version you have the above paragraph while in the Felicia Bond version the paragraph is switched so that you have the hens sleeping as the bats fly away.
In the younger version the book breaks down the next paragraph to give a cutaway view in which you see all the animals in their own stalls and then the following spread shows a focal of the big red barn at night before wrapping up. Yet when you read Rosella's version there are two more paragraphs added that aren't seen in the Bond version.
The actual text from the author is simple and basic as Margaret Wise Brown's works normally are but they share an emotional attachment to the land even while helping the reader to wind down thus making for an ideal bed time story. The characters are all the animals and even though they aren't shown with personalities the illustrations do a great job in helping to round out that particular version to the reader.
Whether you go with the 1961 longer and more detailed version under Rosella Hartman or you go with the brightly colored and a bit more cartoonish Bond version you cannot go wrong as most children love animals on the farm.
November 14, 2021
Maybe the best farm-vignette kids book there is, and from a master, no less. My only wish: That I could stretch this day out and spend more time on this farm, with these animals, because Wise Brown innately captures, with deft, quick gestures, the endearing characters of the animals collected here. But, she goes a step further with the evening scenes that close the book, expertly romanticizing a very common setting with the simple stage lighting of a full moon over the corn.
January 1, 2020
I was obsessed with the eggs in this book when I was little. Don't ask me why, I have no idea.
March 7, 2023
Can’t read this enough 10/5 stars. Beautifully written and beautiful illustration.
January 1, 2023
My cousin Elise read this to me- I was captivated by her dramatic interpretation of it! Plus, there was plenty of red in it!
February 18, 2020
I read this book to my children and continue to read it to all the children I know. The pictures and the flow of the words is beautiful and soothing. There is something so peaceful about a late summer afternoon on a farm and all the animals getting ready to sleep for the night in the big red barn. From the tiniest field mouse to the cow and the donkey. As the book progresses the lighting on each page reflects the duskiness of evening approaching and the sun going down. Ok, I like this book more than the kiddoes, but it just makes me feel warm and cozy!
July 23, 2013
We got a themed box of books from the library about Farms and this was one of the books. Nothing out of the ordinary, except maybe the pretty illustrations. I loved the picture of the tiny pink pig. My preschoolers liked it and enjoyed the pictures, pointing out various things as I read, and so it was still worth reading. No real learning value except that it's a book. It might be considered a level 1 reading book, but it's debatable on whether or not it has enough words to warrant that.
October 2, 2021
this book is a masterpiece. i can’t even.
December 16, 2025
this was a very cozy book
April 11, 2020
"Big Red Barn" is one of those rare kid books that genuinely rewards a close read. It seems like a silly book about animals on a farm that do silly things (all of which rhyme... how convenient). However, upon closer inspection, it's a cautionary tale about the future the communists want in America. The animals are fending for themselves, living amongst each other in a fenceless farm where no one's needs are met. (Unless that "one" is Lenin!) It's only a couple pages in the animals are all fighting over a single bucket of water. Oh, it's all so charming, but who takes care of the animals? Responsible adults? A farmer, maybe? No, children. Children! Read with me:
"There was a big pile of hay / And a little pile of hay, / And that is where the children play. / But in this story the children are away. / Only the animals are here today."
Read that once or twice. There are no adults. If the children are away and that just leaves the animals, there are no adults. Where'd they go? Maybe on some kind of hippy commune somewhere enjoying the horse meat raised by their children. (And, mind you, these children don't seem particularly responsible, either.)
Five out of five stars, if you want your children to grow up in a godless waste of hippy communes and solar panels.
"There was a big pile of hay / And a little pile of hay, / And that is where the children play. / But in this story the children are away. / Only the animals are here today."
Read that once or twice. There are no adults. If the children are away and that just leaves the animals, there are no adults. Where'd they go? Maybe on some kind of hippy commune somewhere enjoying the horse meat raised by their children. (And, mind you, these children don't seem particularly responsible, either.)
Five out of five stars, if you want your children to grow up in a godless waste of hippy communes and solar panels.
December 13, 2023
My children loved this book so much they wore out one copy of it, and the remaining copy is so well loved it would probably get passed over at a yard sale- but that's ok, because the creased paged and the smudged marks remind me of how often they would get excited to climb on my lap and ask me to read it to them over and over again. How they wanted to learn to read the words I was reading to them. How we would chatter about things on their grandparents farms, or about or own critters. This book gets 5 out of 5, not only for the sentimental value it holds, but because it held my childrens attentions, that it was so enjoyable to them even over and over again, because in it's whole, it's a wonderful little book.
It talks about the animals on the farm and what they're doing during their day. About the little things around the barn like scarecrows, mice, weather veins, the cornfield. And how the animals all gather in the Big Red Barn at night, like a loving family, safe and sound.
It talks about the animals on the farm and what they're doing during their day. About the little things around the barn like scarecrows, mice, weather veins, the cornfield. And how the animals all gather in the Big Red Barn at night, like a loving family, safe and sound.
February 8, 2024
Not a parent myself, but nothing humbles me more than Children's Literature.
My lifetime in the city, and never having owned a pet, I sometimes feel rather divorced from animals.
One of my closest friends recently adopted a cat, and gifts to my friend became more of really gifting the cat. Another friend of mine made me more aware of paying attention to snails in my daily walks, and how to appropriately approach them to further their livelihood. I've also recently made a new friend who studies Zoology, where she'd regularly introduce me to cool animal facts that I never really paid attention to before.
Alongside this book, I realize how out of touch I am with my surrounding environment. I only know of animals in theory. But the Big Red Barn reminds me of animals co-existing, and that they live their own fascinating (or maybe like us, very boring) lives.
My lifetime in the city, and never having owned a pet, I sometimes feel rather divorced from animals.
One of my closest friends recently adopted a cat, and gifts to my friend became more of really gifting the cat. Another friend of mine made me more aware of paying attention to snails in my daily walks, and how to appropriately approach them to further their livelihood. I've also recently made a new friend who studies Zoology, where she'd regularly introduce me to cool animal facts that I never really paid attention to before.
Alongside this book, I realize how out of touch I am with my surrounding environment. I only know of animals in theory. But the Big Red Barn reminds me of animals co-existing, and that they live their own fascinating (or maybe like us, very boring) lives.
November 26, 2020
We’ve had this one basically since Rowan was born, but it’s really just this year that he’s gotten more excited about it. Not that he hated it before, but he’s old enough now (2) that he can follow it better, recognizing and naming animals (horace! Pig—oink! oink! Kitty! EGGEGGEGGEGGEGG!!!). So it’s become one he looks forward to and occasionally asks for.
I’m sure this one was part of my own childhood, but I’ve no memory of it. So it’s fun to watch him happily enjoying and interacting with it. Margaret Wise Brown is pretty special, and I’m glad that he likes her. Maybe he’ll continue liking her as long as I have. If not, that’s okay too. For now, the animals are having a lovely time at the Big Red Barn.
I’m sure this one was part of my own childhood, but I’ve no memory of it. So it’s fun to watch him happily enjoying and interacting with it. Margaret Wise Brown is pretty special, and I’m glad that he likes her. Maybe he’ll continue liking her as long as I have. If not, that’s okay too. For now, the animals are having a lovely time at the Big Red Barn.
November 21, 2024
This is MWB at her most list-y, physical and specific. But the wording is restrained, with only a few evocative lines ("And that is where the children would play, but in this story the children are away, and only the animals are here today"), and the only movement is the transition to night. Hartman's illustrations (1956) are sketchy, red and green against graphite, and grow outright ominous as night comes - memorable, somber. Bond's illustrations (1989) are pretty jank and much cuter, happier, more vibrant and less memorable, although the transition to night, vibrancy faded away, lands cozy rather than creepy. Either way, I'm not crazy about this. I'm not convinced the Hartman illustrations work, but they're just about the only memorable bit of this book.
September 9, 2020
This book is full of wonderful pictures and descriptions of animals. It is a story all about what all the animals in this big red barn do during the day. It also introduces all the animals and people that live there. It will teach kids about what happens at a barn and animals. I think the book is okay and has a good plot. When I volunteer at a school during the year they read this book to the children before the big red barn on wheels comes to visit. The kids always seem to enjoy it because a lot of kids like the animals. It is also a rhyming book and would be great read before a class going to zoo or barn.
January 18, 2019
Pretty basic book on farm animals. Not tons of text for storyline or teaching potential, but still a good storytime read. This would be a good bedtime book too, since it's a pretty mellow story, ending with all the animals winding down at the end of the day and heading back to the big red barn to sleep. I used it for a storytime on animals, and the kids enjoyed it. Would also be good for one on farms. Lots of interaction potential with animal noises (always a plus for the 3-4 year old crowd).
July 29, 2020
Calm and gentle story about farm animals and their home in a barn. There’s no humans in this book-the focus is solely on the animals. The rhyme and flow of the book is nice, and it feels very familiar to Goodnight Moon, not that it is similar in story but the authors voice is clear. I am actually not a big fan of Goodnight Moon and like this book much more. I really like farm and rural themed children’s books in general so that helps with the appeal for me here. The illustrations are adorable. They have a nice level of realness, but also a softness as well.
March 6, 2022
Cassie and I read this book for the letter B. We are slowly learning more and more about the alphabet as we get closer to her going to kindergarten. This is a simple book about farm animals and it's perfect for the toddlers and preschoolers. To learn what happens on a farm and be able to see all the animals that are there. It has adorable illustrations that are colorful and take up the whole page. Cassie really loved the illustrations and seeing all the different animals. I recommend you to check this book out.
August 22, 2022
“If I could pick one personal favorite, it would be author/illustrator Felicia Bond, perhaps best known as the illustrator of the contemporary classic series “If You Give a…” (...Mouse a Cookie, ...Pig a Pancake, ...Moose a Muffin, etc.). Many years ago as a young mother, I was first introduced to her sweet and cheerful illustrations in the classic board book Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. There is just something magical about her illustrations that warms your heart and makes you chuckle.”
Displaying 1 - 30 of 396 reviews