Going to the Fair is a straightforward account of the day four children spend at a country fair. They exhibit a calf, a rooster, and a pumpkin, all lovingly raised by hand. They look at the displays of antique farm machinery, quilts, flowers, and home-made preserves. They take part in a tug of war and a haystack treasure hunt, and they eat lots of junk food. They go home tired and happy.

This is a very mundane story, but the book is a gem. Sheryl McFarlane has a rare talent for conveying a love of writing – that dizzying intoxication with language that most writers feel, but so few can communicate to young children. Common sense suggests that words like “scrutiny,” “recognition,” “neglect,” “serenely,” and “acrid” probably don’t belong in a book for four- to eight-year-olds. But these words seem perfectly at home. The text reads like poetry. It even rhymes in places, but more than that, every word is hand-chosen, polished and set at just the right angle to catch the imagination.

Sheena Lott provides full-colour illustrations for every other page, and line drawings for the bottom of each text page. Her work is highly realistic, colourful, detailed, and almost ethnographic in its accuracy. Rural life used to be a much more important part of Canada’s culture than it is today. When my parents were children in Toronto in the 1930s, they memorized poultry and cattle breeds as part of their public school education. Those days are gone forever. So it is good to see this important institution of rural society, the country fair, so faithfully and lovingly represented in this very fine book.