Good Morning, Farm

I'm Anita Bijsterbosch. I was born in 1961 in The Netherlands. My entire life, I have loved reading. As a child, I could spend hours thumbing through books, looking at the pictures and hoping I could one day make such beautiful illustrations myself. I studied the images down to the smallest detail and made up my own little stories to go along with them. After high school, I took drawing and painting lessons in small galleries in my neighborhood. And I learned a lot from drawing and painting books. But I also mastered many techniques simply by experimenting with them on my own. When my children were still young, I read them a bedtime story every night. I rediscovered that some picture books are real pieces of art. That’s when I got the ambition to make my very own picture books. I was remarked by the jury of the Key Colours International Illustrators Award 2012. The book Whose Hat is That? was published by Clavis Publishing and every book I have made since has been even more successful.

"Wake up! It’s time to meet the farm animals.A rooster with boldly colored plumage begins the morning wake-up call against a sunrise-peach sky. The dog wakes—“Woof, woof!”—and rouses the sheep: “Baa!” And so it goes, with cow, horse, pig, and goat each taking center stage by turn. Each animal gets full-spread treatment against clear blue skies and uncluttered backdrops. The signature noise and name of each animal are set in boldface within two sentences of descriptive text. Following this description, the narrator spies a tail, ear, hoof, or horn on the right edge of each spread that hints at which animal will appear next. On each spread, a tiny mouse that’s hidden in plain sight sleeps through the noise, finally waking on the penultimate spread, in which: “Shhh! The cat is still sleeping.” The final-spread reprise of all eight farm animal sounds finally wakens the cat. The smiling, large-scale animals make it clear what toddler readers should focus on, the simple, farm-scene backgrounds putting the animals in context without too many distractions. Guessing which animal is next and searching for the hidden mouse provide just the right amount of interaction for the target age group.Toddlers will be ready to sing “Old MacDonald” after this board-book guessing game." - Kirkus Reviews "A great interactive story for little ones where they can try to find a mouse on each of the pages in addition to guessing what animal will appear on the next page." - Lorain Public Library System"Good Morning Farm by Anita Bijsterbosch is a fun farm animal picture book for children. The illustrations are adorable and highlight each animal. I loved the sneak peak of a body part of the next animal on each page with a question posed for the reader to guess the animal coming next. This would be a great book to read aloud with young children to promote language development." - Plymouth Public Schools"This book has bright colorful illustrations with plenty of background additions kids will surely notice. Each page has an animal, complete with appropriate sounds. However, each page also has the preview of the next animal at the edge of the page. The adult reading the book can allow time for the child (or group of them) to guess what's coming next. Kids love to make predictions and have them confirmed. This book offers many options for class engagement, and I appreciate that as an educator and a parent. Good Morning, Farm would be a great addition to a preschool classroom library or a home collection." - Superhero Success Foundation