Goat on a Tractor by Amy Harrop and Ross Hamilton

In the sequel to the highly popular Goat on a Trampoline, by Amy Harrop, Lily is up to mischief again. While the other farm animals are happily doing their own thing, Lily the goat is bored and is on the lookout for a new adventure. Then she spots a rusty red tractor in a barn she can’t resist taking it for a ride. But does Lily know how to drive it? No, she does not!

After doing a lot of damage to the farmyard on her chaotic ride, the story ends up with Lily perilously balancing on the partially submerged tractor in the middle of a lake.

The other farm animals are really mad at her. The illustrator, Ross Hamilton, captures the angry look on their faces perfectly as they growl at her for digging up paddocks, knocking over the silage, breaking fences and disturbing the bees.

Poor Lily is stuck and knows she can’t get back to shore without their help. So, she puts on her most angelic face and promises to fix up the mess she has made if they will rescue her.

And being the good friends they are they work out a clever plan. Together they create a farmyard chain and manage to pull both Lily and the tractor out.

Lily does keep her promise and goes to work to repair all the damage she has done. She mends the railings, fixes up the hedge, flattens the paddocks and settles the bees. It takes her ages!

She has learnt her lesson and intends to behave from now on. But will she succeed? Judging by the mischievous glint in her eyes when she spots a boat by the river, she won’t be able to resist getting up to more mischief in the not-too-distant future which is bound to annoy her farmyard friends.

Author Amy Harrop and illustrator Ross Hamilton are a great team. Her words and his pictures complement each other perfectly.

Her rollicking rhyming story is great fun to read out loud. And as the story unfolds little ones will extend their vocabulary by her use of onomatopoeia to describe the different noises the tractor makes e.g.

The tractor rolled out the barn with a splutter and cough.

The wheels hit the ground with a rumble and thump.

With a crash and a splash, the tractor went in.

While Ross Hamilton’s delightful colourful comicky illustrations of Lily on her reckless journey on the old tractor, and the changing emotions on Lily’s face and  on her farmyard friends faces as they watch the debacle, really brings the story to life.

And there is also a lesson to be learnt about teamwork in this picture book. Although the farm animals are mad at Lily, after she makes a pledge to fix up the mess she has made, they cleverly make a farmyard chain. Together they manage to rescue Lily and to pull the tractor out of the lake.

Preschoolers will want to hear this zany story again and again and will be delighted that there might well be another Lily story to come as although she is a naughty goat she is also very cute and adorable!

Reviewer: Lyn Potter

Bateman Books