7 fantastic farm stories

When I began to write the Whistledown Farm Adventures I thought there’d be loads of books based on farms – but it turns out there’s not as many as you think! There are plenty of picture books with farm animals for pre-schoolers but for older readers there isn’t a huge amount. I loved stories about animals when I was growing up and if a book had animals in it, I would definitely reach for it on the shelf. 

Just like a lot of places books take us to, books based on farms take readers into the fields and farmyards and alongside everything that lives there. They may not be quite as far away and exotic as a jungle or as magical and fantastical as another world in a galaxy far away, but for some it may be the only experience they get of life on a farm. That’s why it was important to me to make the Whistledown Farm Adventures feel as real as possible as a setting. Farmers spend their days out on the farm in all weathers, battling the wind and rain or up to their knees in mud, so I wanted to make sure some of that was in the books too – as well as the joyful bits like new lambs being born or the arrival of a new animal on the farm. Using the seasons for the four books in the series also meant that readers could get a real sense of what was going on in the countryside and on farms throughout the year – the perfect backdrop to whatever adventure Ava and her friends were getting up to. 

I’ve put together a list of my top farm books, all of which are either based on a farm or feature farm animals or a farm in their story. 

The Great Farm Rescue by Helen Peters 

I love Helen Peters’s books and The Great Farm Rescue is one of my favourites! It’s the third book in the Hannah’s Farm series and sees Hannah and her family fighting to save their home when their landlord decides to sell their farm. Hannah, along with her friends and family, try to raise the money to buy the farm themselves but it’s a heck of a lot of money to raise! 

William the sheep loves to dance – which isn’t what he’s supposed to be doing at sheep school! But when the Big Bad Wolf and his gang make an appearance, it’s only William who can save the day. A lovely Little Gems Barrington Stoke book for younger readers by the brilliant Ross Montgomery (complete with a few sheep jokes inside the cover) which shows that sometimes it’s good to be different. 

The Jasmine Green Series by Helen Peters (again!), illustrated by Ellie Snowden 

Jasmine’s dad is a farmer and her mum a vet so Jasmine helps lots of animals in this series of books. There’s sheepdogs, piglets, goats, lambs, otters – you name an animal and it’s probably in this series, complete with gorgeous illustrations by Ellie Snowdon. There’s loads of books in the series and it’s hard to pick a favourite! 

Six Animal Adventures by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Shoo Rayner 

Packed with six classic funny and silly Mudpuddle Farm stories that are nice and short to keep readers zipping through them. The illustrations by Shoo Rayner are brilliant and mean you can go through the book several times and still see something new. From a farm cat that’s about to lose his job, to ​‘martians’ on the farm and a piglet that wants to fly. 

This is one for readers who are a little older and like things a bit spooky. It’s not really a farm story but is set on an old farm in Ireland in the middle of nowhere. It’s beautifully descriptive and follows Edie and her brother Pip as they stay with their grandmother Lolly. It has themes of family and loss with a bit of Viking treasure thrown in! 

These books are classics that I remember reading growing up and I remember them both fondly. I particularly loved rooting for Babe the pig who wanted to round up sheep! 

The Whistledown Farm Adventures series by Nicola Baker, illustrated by Rachael Dean, is out now.