Sonderbooks Book Review of

Old Mikamba Had a Farm

by Rachel Isadora

Old Mikamba Had a Farm

by Rachel Isadora

Review posted February 12, 2014.
Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin), 2013. 36 pages.

Old Mikamba indeed has a farm – a game farm on the plains of Africa. The format is the same as singing about Old MacDonald’s farm, but the animals are quite different.

There’s a baboon, with an Ooh-ha-ha. There’s an elephant, with a Baraaa-baraaa. There’s a dassie, with a trill-trill. There’s a warthog, with a Snort-snort. And finally, there’s a lion, with a Roar-roar. Altogether, fourteen African animals are featured with lovely mostly collage illustrations.

A page at the back tells a paragraph more about each of the animals.

This is a lovely twist on a familiar song that is sure to be a hit at Storytime. If fourteen verses gets long, you can always skip some pages, but be sure to always finish off with the lion! And you thought you knew what farm animals were!