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Barn Dance!

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Who can sleep on such a beautiful night? Not Mama Horse. Not Mama Pig. Not Mama Sheep. They want to dance! Bounce! Jig! Leap! Shhh! The little ones are sound asleep . . . or are they?

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 24, 2007

28 people want to read

About the author

Pat Hutchins

137 books67 followers
Pat Hutchins is an English illustrator and writer of children's books.

She won the 1974 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. The work was The Wind Blew, a picture book in rhyme which she also wrote. It shows how "a crowd of people anxiously chase their belongings" in the wind.

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5 stars
16 (15%)
4 stars
28 (26%)
3 stars
48 (45%)
2 stars
11 (10%)
1 star
2 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
22 reviews2 followers
October 26, 2019
My child LOVES to read so we frequent the library and just close our eyes and pick books off the shelf to read. This is how we stumbled across this book and many of his other favorites. This book Barn Dance! is a cute children's book centered in a barn, telling a story of a mother pig, sheep, and horse that want to dance the night away but their little ones are sleeping. I made a broad text-t0-text connection here with the personification of animals, which is seen often in children's books, and how children can learn from the behavior modeled by animals. This was a fun book to read with vivid and detailed artwork with rhyming words throughout and it makes for a great bedtime story!
Profile Image for Janet.
3,714 reviews37 followers
January 27, 2019
This title does have a fairly good rhyming text, but I did not enjoy the storyline or the illustrations which are very different from the early Pat Hutchins titles two of which I adore to this day, Rosie’s Walk and Owl tried to Sleep. The only illustration reflective of her early illustrations is the tree with the owl on the front cover and repeated in one illustration. I did like the use of the word jig and jigged for some of the actions in the text. Overall disappointing.
Profile Image for Miss Becky.
339 reviews
February 24, 2025
Pig, Horse, and sheep want to dance but the little ones are sleeping. They each take a turn to quietly dance and then to rest by their babies. Then all the baby animals have their own time to dance when the mother animals are sleeping.
Profile Image for Gela .
207 reviews11 followers
May 9, 2017
My 6 year olds review: (great for encouraging little ones to read) I like the book a lot, there are a lot of my popcorn words in it.
Profile Image for Cameron Walker.
46 reviews1 follower
June 15, 2017
This a fun, rhythmic book about barn animals who like to dance. First it was horse, then sheep, then pig who showed off their moves. I like this book's liveliness and creative rhyming.
Profile Image for Tracy Schillemore.
3,811 reviews12 followers
November 2, 2017
The thing that bothered me about this book was the rhyming patterns. They are just off. It is cute with all of the dancing animals however.
Profile Image for Hannah.
1,325 reviews25 followers
September 10, 2019
Fun little rhyming book, but the storyline was just okay.
Profile Image for Lauren.
1,601 reviews
November 15, 2021
A silly story about dancing farm animals with lots of rhythm and repetition--a good story time pick! (This one would work well with a flannel board activity.)
639 reviews2 followers
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November 5, 2017
Barn Dance! / written and illustrated by Pat Hutchins -- New York : Greenwillow Books, c2007. (32 pages)

SUMMARY: Who can sleep on such a beautiful night? Not Mama Horse. Not Mama Pig. Not Mama Sheep. They want to dance! Bounce! Jig! and Leap! -- Shhh! The little ones are sound asleep...or are they just waiting for their turn? (bookjacket)

REVIEW: The different animals have different ways of dancing that are unique to them which comes through in the text and illustrations. However, overall, I didn't like this book. I much prefer the title BARN DANCE by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault.

Author/illustrator has many titles that I enjoy including THE DOORBELL RANG and ROSIE'S WALK.
Profile Image for Jonathan.
55 reviews
November 27, 2012
This is a very fun books about some mother animals late one night wanting to dance but their babies were asleep. This is an excellent introduction to some music and movement activities. The verses where well written and rhymed beautifully. The art was also very eye-catching.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE:
The class has its own barn dance during music and movement. Each child gets an opportunity to dance how they want before giving a turn to the next student. It helps if the teachers participate.
19 reviews
June 20, 2013
The illustrations were very colorful and descriptive. It is a rhyming book with great adjectives that describes many items. This book is a great way to teach children how to use adjectives. A learning experience would be to break down the book and pick out adjectives and place them in different sentences.
Profile Image for Ina.
1,273 reviews15 followers
April 23, 2015
Brightly colored, humor filled illustrations and rhyming text engage readers. The full moon draws all the farm animals out to dance - "bounce, jug and to leap" - one night while their little ones were fast asleep. They have fun, but not exactly the kind of fun they expected, and they end up asleep…while their little ones enjoy a little fun of their own.
Profile Image for Katherine.
249 reviews18 followers
January 4, 2017
I love this book with the dancing pig, horse, and sheep mamas. The dancing causes all sorts of trouble but the mamas keep dancing until they are exhausted. I'm not sure this would be a storytime crowd-pleaser but it would be great one-on-one read aloud.
Profile Image for Shannon.
2,135 reviews63 followers
November 24, 2011
Accidentally checked this book out when I wanted the Bill Martin Jr. version, whoops. This book would pair nicely with David Ezra Stein's Interrupting Chicken, methinks...
Profile Image for Karen Dransfield.
705 reviews4 followers
May 22, 2015
The grown ups dance wildly to the point they are tired and have to rest... and so the kids sneak out for their own dance. A lovely story.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

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