by Barbara Lockhart
Age level: 5 – 8 years
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Schiffer (2013)
ISBN-13: 978-0764343889
Mosey’s favorite place to curl up for a snooze is in the middle of a farm field. But noisy machines followed by rapidly-growing green stalks make his napping spot difficult to find. Readers accompany the inquisitive hound as he explores a cornfield through the growing season.
Mosey has to leave his spot for the disk to come through, and again for the planter. But when the field becomes a sea of growing corn, he struggles to find his napping place. Still, he spends most of his time in the field, following the rows of stalks and chasing rabbits.
On a fall day when the corn is brown and dry, a pointy-toothed machine begins to chew through the crop. Mosey barks furiously and runs home to his family.
From one perspective, this is a delightful book about a dog. But from an agricultural literacy point of view, it beautifully portrays the lifecycle of corn. Strikingly descriptive text captures the sounds, sights, and sensations of a cornfield and the machinery used to farm it. “Soon the stalks grew tall and the leaves crisscrossed each other, green upon green, so there were only tiny patches of sky.”
Illustrator Heather Crow’s vibrant watercolors artistically yet accurately portray modern crop production. Apart from seagulls following the tractor during fall tillage (author Barbara Lockhart was inspired by farms of the Eastern Shore of Maryland where she lives), the story could have been set in the Midwest.
A page of “back matter” explains the differences between sweet corn and field corn and how they are used. “Mosey’s Field” was donated to DeKalb County school libraries in 2019. It is also available from online retailers or by ordering from your favorite bookstore.