The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee

Its shape and primary colors make it look like a toy, especially against the soft, textured grays and browns of the farm, skies and earth. They juggle eggs and share real farmwork until the circus train returns along the distant tracks. Without makeup, the child-clown's smile disappears is he sad to lose that connection to his home-train, or had the smile been made of makeup all along? With growing tenderness, the farmer watches over his sleeping guest and, come morning, hops and dances to cheer him up. Silently they stare at each other, eat and wash their faces. The clown deftly pantomimes having fallen off the train-action and emotion shine wordlessly-and the farmer takes him home. He finds a small clown, wearing white makeup, a red-and-yellow costume and a broad smile. The startled farmer sets out in that direction. As the train chugs off the edge of the spread, a jolt propels something off the caboose. In the distance, surprisingly, a steam train crosses the horizon. A tall, scowling farmer labors with a pitchfork on an endless brown field. Lovely.' Source: School Library Journal, August 2014, *STARRED REVIEW*Ī solitary farmer on an empty plain receives the most unlikely visitor. The poignant relationship calls to mind the quiet potency of scenes in Raymond Briggs’s The Snowman (Random, 1978) and Sarah Stewart’s The Gardener (Farrar, 2007). This is a tender look at light and shadow, the joy and comfort in companionship, the lift that laughter provides, and the friendship possible among generations (and species). Exuberance meets quiet responsibility as the whirlwind in a red one-piece, the small clown, embraces the legs of the old man. A swiftly moving circus train on the horizon introduces color and an unexpected visitor, when a bump on the tracks ejects a young clown. * 'Frazee’s controlled palette of subdued golds, browns, and grays offers a fitting backdrop for the hard-working farmer foregrounded in this wordless tale.

The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee