Read best with a twang, Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault’s Barn Dance has the rhythm of a square dance. If you lived on a farm, wouldn’t you want to sneak out in the middle of the night for a secret party with the animals?
This book is all about language–rhythm, rhyme, vocabulary, slang. Talk and find examples of these elements. City kids might not know what a cottonwood tree is, or a fiddle or curtsey. Words like plink, honeyed and oozle offer discussion on onomatopoeia. Is oozle in the dictionary?
First see if you can define it from context clues, either as a group or individually. Then check your classroom or home dictionary. Check out a few. After doing your own legwork, you still need a helpful hint, go to http://www.slang-dictionary.org/NdPUY/Oozle .
