Lexile Level: AD470L
This picture book by Doreen Cronin tells the story of Farmer Brown and his very opinionated farm animals. Farmer Brown's cows have many complaints about their living conditions and use a typewriter to send letters detailing their issues. This inspires the chickens to do the same and results in Farmer Brown having to write letters to his animals in order for them to do their jobs. This book can be used with early elementary students as a read aloud. The author's use of repetitive phrases would be great to build the students' phonemic awareness. The book also would be perfect to introduce persuasive writing to students. Students could connect to the text and could respond by writing letters to someone, such as their parents or their principle, to get something they want or need.