Imprint: Ravette Books Limited Review: Shwetha H S
ISBN: 1853041122 and 1853041769
US Acres, known as Orson’s Farm outside the USA, is another creation by Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield and friends. Though it has the word farm in its title and similar characters, it has nothing to do with George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
The title character, Orson, is a pig. Booker is a chick and Sheldon an egg that doesn’t want to hatch completely and walks on two legs. Because Orson incubated these two while they were still eggs until they each completely and partially hatched each as he read his books, Booker and Sheldon call Orson their mom though he is a male. This farm also has a rooster by name Roy, two sheep siblings Bo and Lanolin, a crazy and cowardly duck called Wade, Cody a puppy, Blue a kitten, and a colony of random worms that keep taunting Booker often.
I remember reading Orson’s Farm books as a child. I used to laugh a lot. Sometimes, I even used to act like the characters in these books. Now that I am reading them as an adult, I find them less funny, but they are still as precious as ever. I feel like picking up my colour pencils and colour the cartoons. These are the books, the steppingstone, to my bibliophilic adult life. No matter what be the title, all the comics under US Acres/Orson’s Farm are random depictions of each characters’ lives in the farm and their interactions with each other.
Orson’s Farm is a good start for hooking children to books and to avoid video games. Adults too will not be disappointed.
We Read That Too 