One Smart Sheep
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
It takes one smart sheep to escape from a piano movers’ van and find his way home in this humorous friendship story for emerging and newly independent readers by beloved, award-winning author Gary D. Schmidt and coauthor Elizabeth Stickney.
Wilson is a curious sheep, and after he foolishly climbs into the back of a piano movers' truck, he ends up alone in the big city, far from the farm. But Wilson is also one smart sheep, and soon enough he's finding his way home to his worried owner by recognizing the sounds that he heard while he was trapped in the truck—a jackhammer, a calliope, a hotdog man. And could that be the excited barking of his friend Tippy, the border collie?
This lighthearted story about loyalty, problem solving, friendship, and independence is divided into short, action-packed chapters and has the cozy feel of a modern classic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this beginning chapter book authored by previous collaborators (A Long Road on a Short Day) Schimdt and his late wife Stickney, a sheep named Wilson makes an unexpected journey via delivery truck. It takes Wilson's resourceful owner Abigail Atwood, a border collie named Tippy, and a crusty, loud machine–loving neighbor named Jeremiah Jefferson to restore Wilson to his place on Abigail's farm. The narration proceeds in real time, describing Wilson's remarkably friendly personality—he always trots over for a pat—and developing a subplot of crabby exchanges between Abigail and Jeremiah ("I suppose he'd look handsome to some," Jeremiah says grudgingly when asked to admire Wilson). Affectionate passages recall Wilson's idyllic babyhood in Abigail and Tippy's cabin; it's an interest in finding the "warm and comfortable" that leads Wilson into a piano delivery truck, setting off further gambols. Rhythmic narration often comes in threes, as when Wilson discovers his error: "No Tippy. No Abigail. No woodstove, either." Manning (Jumping Off Library Shelves) contributes green, misty watercolors, with pink-skinned characters whose friendly, expressive faces befit this pure-hearted comedy. The creators celebrate the quirky dilemmas of rural life in a way that radiates affection for animals and their owners. Ages 8–12. Authors' agent: Rick Margolis, Rising Bear Literary.
