Meet Taylor McNamara: She's twelve. She's a city girl. But her parents have just moved her to a sheep farm in the middle of nowhere. Meet the farm animals: forty chickens, twenty sheep, ten ducks, and four goats, one of which can pee on his own head. Meet the principal and kids in Taylor's new school: Kids tease her about her ugly barn boots and the chicken poop in her hair, yet they admire her pluck. Taylor struggles to adapt to her new life, but finds it hard to adjust to the farm's daily surprises, especially those that prove to be embarrassing at school. With the help of her friend Megan, Taylor embarks on a nearly disastrous plan to move her family back to the city. But one lonely night, in the barn, Taylor discovers that farming isn't all bad.
Catherine Friend left a career in technical writing in Minneapolis to move with her spouse to a small farm in southeastern Minnesota. Her adult memoirs, Hit by a Farm and Sheepish, chronicle her many adventures and mishaps in the country. Her children's picture book, The Perfect Nest, was chosen by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best read-aloud books of 2007. While she's not always comfortable with every aspect of farming, Catherine is proud that she's learned to take the wool from her sheep's backs and knit it into very cool socks.