Fat Hendrick Stories

Michelle Robertson - Reader's Favorite Review

Imagine going into your barn to milk your cow and milk is not what comes out. Impossible and strange, right? For Farmer Floyd, the impossible just might win him a new prize at this year's county fair! Farmer Floyd has a cow named Jesse that wins prizes at the fair for her delicious milk. One morning, when Farmer Floyd went to the barn to get milk from Jesse, milk was not was she produced, but the most delicious, savory butter he had ever tasted! What? How could Jesse produce butter? Nothing on the farm has changed except the new tenant. Could he have anything to do with Jesse the cow's sudden production of butter? What will Farmer Floyd do for the fair if his cow can't produce prize-winning milk? 

Buttermilk by Fat Hendrick is a delightful children's animal pictorial book introducing young readers to an interesting and funny way of creating homemade butter on a farm. Children love animals, especially farm animals. Most children grow up knowing about what happens on a farm and can relate to this story and find it humorous. A young reader who knows a cow produces milk and not butter will most likely think that scenario is funny, and want to continue reading to find out how such a thing could happen. 

The object of a story is to entertain a reading audience. Entertain is what Author Fat Hendrick certainly does. Not only with the story plot and dialog, but with the illustrations and a secondary plot. A young reader being read to or reading the story themselves will observe not just the main characters of the story illustrations, but those of a few mischievous ants. Their attention and curiosity is now not only on the exciting story plot itself, but also to solving the mystery of what those ants are doing as they turn each page. Having a transitional plot like that makes a young reader's imagination work harder. This short children's story can easily become a firm favorite.