Those Magnificent Sheep in Their Flying Machines

August 1, 2014

K-Gr 2-A herd of sheep stumbles upon an airshow and inadvertently takes off in a plane. After initial confusion, they discover they like flying, and they decide to travel and see the world. Following a series of adventures-in Tibet, they run from a Yeti; a maharajah in India thinks, "Mutton curry;" and a log in a Florida swamp "wants something to chomp"-they decide to head home to their pasture. They leap out, and the befuddle pilot sees his empty plane, no thieves in sight-only sheep, munching away. The rhymes flow well, and the text swoops and swerves with the motion of the plane. Illustrations bring to mind the 1920s and include the heavy use of patterns on people's clothes and faraway landscapes. However, the best part of the pictures are the expressions on the woolly white faces of the sheep, particularly on the cover. They look positively blissful-flying clearly agrees with them.-Kelly Roth, Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, GA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2014
A passel of sheep, who vaguely resemble characters from the titular movie, are quietly grazing on the hillside when they are startled by a loud noise overhead. Their curiosity piqued, they skip to the hilltop and spy an air race about to begin, complete with men in goggles and a brass band. The sheep can't resist the urge to check out a bright yellow airplane standing nearby. One thing leads to another, and soon, the eight sheep find themselves squished into the tiny cockpit, soaring above the fields, swerving, swooping and looping with gay abandon. Their wild aerial journey takes them on fantastical, if somewhat stereotyped, adventures all over the world. They can-can in France, flamenco in Spain, encounter a Yeti in Tibet, are (politically incorrectly) offered mutton curry in India and are threatened by crocs in Florida. Suddenly homesick, the errant sheep fly home and are grazing on their familiar hillside before the chap who owns the plane can guess the identity of the "thieves in white sweaters" who stole it. This lighthearted romp, full of jokey references to an almost 50-year-old movie, will amuse young readers who are not bothered by logistical improbability. The seamless melding of Bently's catchy British doggerel with Roberts' elegant colored-pencil-and-watercolor illustrations makes this an attractive choice. Just pure, wooly-headed fun. (Picture book. 3-6)

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September 1, 2014
Preschool-G Eight sheep are munching away on a hillside when Zoom! racing airplanes swoosh overhead. The excited sheep hop into a bright yellow biplane, with fluff, hooves, and horns humorously overlapping. The ladies and gents below, dressed in 1920s clothing, spot the goings-on with their binoculars, and a mustached chap cries out in alarm. In every action-filled double-page spread, the text itself whirls in loop-the-loops and nosedives as the woolly passengers cry, Yippee! Their journey around the world continues as they cancan in France, flamenco in Spain, wake up mummies in Egypt, and disturb a grouchy yeti. The poetic text is clever: An old maharajah sat stroking his belly / And said, Come for lunch at my palace in Delhi!' On each page, green hills, blue skies, clouds, sunsets, all in bright color washes and a wealth of detail demand examination. Children will enjoy this delightful global romp.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2015
"Munching away," eight grazing sheep stumble upon an air show, stuff themselves into a plane, and jet off on an adventure--can-canning in France, fleeing a Tibetan Yeti, and waking Egyptian mummies. "Travel is fun!," sure, but (predictably) the sheep are happy to make it home. Roberts's fine-lined illustrations match the old-fashioned feel of Bently's rip-roaring, British-flavored rhymes.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)