Hayfest…It’s Not for Everyone

Ellen Leventhal & Ellen Rothberg
The ABC’s Press (2009)
ISBN 9780982027813
Reviewed by Cayden Aures (age 4 1/2) and Mom for Reader Views (2/09)


“Hayfest…It’s Not for Everyone” is set on a farm and explores how the different animals don’t all celebrate the same holidays.  Each animal has their own farm holiday.  Besides Hayfest there are such celebrations as Ladybugaloo, Wormarama, and many more! 

Cayden:  “The animals all have different holidays like people do too.  We learned at school that not everyone has Christmas and that they do other days instead for different things.  This is kind of like that.  I liked the part where the cow was wearing the ‘Celebrate Hayfest’ sign and the other animals decorated it different.”

Parent’s comments:

I liked the message about diversity that “Hayfest…It’s Not for Everyone” sends, especially the fact that the book does so in a different way.  We did not have the book in its final form so I am not sure how the finished product will look, but in the version that we had the text was quite difficult to read.  It did not stand out well against the busy background illustrations.  Other than that, I found “Hayfest…It’s Not for Everyone” by Ellen Leventhal & Ellen Rothberg to be a unique book that will teach young children an important life lesson.

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