by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 07, 2010

"Once Upon MacDonald's Farm" is a funny prequel, telling the origins of the famous folk song. "While it is true that MacDonald had a farm," writes Stephen Gammell, "it wasn't much of a farm, and he had no animals. None at all."  Unfortunately, when old MacDonald decides on a change, he doesn't start with chick, a cow and a horse that goes neigh-neigh here, neigh-neigh there. Instead, according to this children's book, old MacDonald started his farm with an elephant, a baboon, and a lion!

Needless to say, milking is going to be a challenge. (Gammell supplies an illustration of a very irritated lion.) But he also shows MacDonald plowing his field - with the elephant. And later that afternoon, it's time to gather eggs - though the only thing sitting on a nest is one very skeptical baboon.

It's a simple joke, but the book's realistic drawings make it much more effective. Stephen Gammell evokes mode "using a plain old pencil," according to the book's jacket, and though he's a self-taught illustrator, he's illustrated over 50 children's book (according to Wikipedia). He contributed the creepy drawings for the series of books called "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." But this book was the first children's story that he'd written himself.

The black and white sketches lend a gloomy realism to MacDonald's hopes. Eventually the elephant and the lion leave (with the baboon) - but they're seen at the end of a scraggly field, under grey clouds that cover a full moon. When MacDonald asks his neighbor for suggestions, there's a barbed wire fence plus some old wooden pickets. And even the book's first drawing depicts a very realistic farmer's barn - beside a windmill, next to chicken wire fence - and with its barn door falling off its hinges!

It's a funny book - but the humor is all in the pictures. Gammell writes simply that MacDonald "had milking to do" - leaving the reader to giggle at the illustration of the irritated lion! And the book's funniest joke comes at the end, when MacDonald has finally re-started his farm using more appropriate animals.  (A neighbor has sent over a horse, plus a cow and a chicken.) Gammell writes, tongue in cheek, that MacDonald was eager to start to work, so after a good night's sleep - and a healthy breakfast - he sets out to plow the field.

But unfortunately, he's harnessed his plow to the chicken!

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