5 fantastic farmyard books
Published on: 14 Mawrth 2025
Author Catherine Cawthorne chooses five farmyard favourites.
My picture book Oh No Flo!, illustrated by the amazing Mike Byrne, is about a very well-meaning sheepdog who thinks she is helpfully doing all the jobs on the farm whilst Farmer is poorly. But really she is muddling them all up and creating total carnage!
Flo is partly based on me – clumsy but well-intentioned. Maybe it’s something about being the third child in a family. I always feel seen when I read the description of the third sibling in the opening of The Railway Children:
“And the youngest was Phyllis, who meant extremely well.”
Oh No Flo! is also based on memories from my early childhood. Every summer we would go and stay on a farm in Devon for our family holiday. We didn’t have any pets at home, so I would become devoted to all the animals living there. There was a particularly gentle, lovely sheepdog called Flo, who was my favourite.
So if you’ve sung ‘Old MacDonald’ one too many times and need some new inspiration, here’s a selection of some of my favourite farmyard children’s books:
Mavis The Bravest by Lu Fraser and Sarah Warburton
Mavis feels scared of everything, and would rather stay in her barn and do her knitting. But when a thief steals her friend Sandra the Sheep, can Mavis find the courage to rescue her?
What The Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks
An absolute farmyard classic, with lots of animal noises! Can the farm animals thwart those naughty robbers Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len?
Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury
Poor Duck lives on a farm with a very lazy farmer. The farmer stays in bed all day and expects Duck to do all the work. But the other animals on the farm notice, and together they hatch a plan…
Counting Sheep by Michelle Robinson and Nikki Dyson
Sam the sheepdog is trying to get all the farmyard animals to sleep, but everybody’s wide awake! A fun, farmyard counting book.
The Unbelievable Top Secret Diary of Pig by Emer Stamp
For slightly older readers, this is a very funny, highly illustrated chapter book narrated by the endearing, lovely and constantly hungry Pig. Pig is best friends with the highly intelligent Duck, but is very much NOT friends with the Evil Chickens…
Oh No Flo! by Catherine Cawthorne and illustrated by Mike Byrne is out now.
