These are stories of a bigger-than-life farmer. They use the same kind of exaggerated humor as the tall tales about imaginary lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe, and about super cowboy Pecos Bill. One or both of them is supposed to have dug the Grand Canyon. That kind of wacky tale. Both children and adults can get a kick out of nonsensical tall tales. You don’t have to be a lumberjack to “get” and enjoy the Paul Bunyan stories, and you don’t have to be a farmer to read these stories about Farmer Will. Each chapter is a story, standing alone but also connected. In the first, Farmer Will loses his temper, and his friend and neighbor, Annabelle Smith, another fantastical farmer, tries to help him learn how to keep it. In the second story, a renegade snowstorm gets caught on the top of a silo and causes major problems after Farmer Will tries to herd it on its way. Will takes up embroidery in the third story. It’s not for relaxation but to help him keep his cows sorted from his neighbors’. The fourth story has Farmer Will drilling for water during a drought, with surprising results. A sudden freeze threatens his produce in the fifth story, and Will has to figure out how to save his growing fruits and vegetables. In the sixth chapter, a challenge leads to an all-out horse race. Annabelle Smith is supposed to be the prize, but she surprises the contestants by joining the race. In the seventh story, Farmer Will gets into a blowing contest with a strong wind, causing havoc with the countryside and his own house. Will replaces his house with a new one in chapter 8. He is “helped” along the way by a feuding cat and dog. In the ninth story, Will has a most unusual farmhand, and it’s a good thing he does. Frustration arrives in chapter 10, when a huge flock of annoying and destructive blackbirds moves into the neighborhood. Finally, in the eleventh story, Farmer Will has a life-changing decision to make.
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