A Treasure Book

The story of an unlikely friendship, The Scarecrow by Beth Ferry and The Fan Brothers is a beautiful tale of friendship between a scarecrow and a crow.

A scarecrow stands in a field alone, he is a scarecrow after all whose one and only job is to protect the field from animals who wish to nibble on the farmer’s crops.  Being a scarecrow is a lonely existence but it is about to get a little more interesting for this particular fellow. When a baby crow falls at scarecrows feet, he knows he must care for the little creature.  Just as the seasons change, young grow up and must leave and once again scarecrow is alone.  

This picture book is so incredibly beautiful.  From the gorgeous lyrical writing of Beth Ferry to the frameworthy art by Eric and Terry Fan, this is a treasure book that you will have on your shelves for years and years to come.  There is so much depth in the story that it is one you will want to share with your young readers as well as your older, perhaps high school age readers. Between the text and the art this book with grow and grow.  I would even go as far to say it is a book about friendship even more relevant and honest than The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. The Scarecrow is a book I am so proud to have on my shelves and is a book I would encourage all teachers and caregiver to have on theirs.  Let’s give our children a better representation of friendship, let’s use The Scarecrow to show that friendship is reciprocal, each party giving to the other because that is the true meaning of friendship and the true value of a lifelong friend. I feel like there are times when we get so caught up in “classics” that we miss opportunities to provide timely and accurate representations to our children.  Sure The Giving Tree has had it’s time but that story is no longer relevant. True friendship does not involve giving of yourself until there is no self left. Friendship is The Scarecrow and the crow