Farmer Junco story

June 8, 2009 2:40 AM

Seeking Richard Scarry book containing 'Farmer Junco' story.

As a child, my wife loved the story of 'Farmer Junco' which was in a collection of stories by Richard Scarry.

Now that we have a child of our own, I'd love to track down a copy of the book.

Can anyone tell me which book contains the Farmer Junco story?

(This follows an earlier question: http://ask.metafilter.com/118732/Desperately-seeking-Farmer-Junkle
which was posted before a discovered the story was written by Richard Scarry.)

Many thanks.

posted by Blackwatch to writing & language (11 comments total)

It may have been from Busy, Busy World, but the cover of that doesn't look quite how I remember it. I'm going to scour our house to see if I can find the book cos I remember that story from when I was a child!
posted by Chrysalis at 3:04 AM on June 8

Yes, it was Busy, Busy World. It's out of print now though :(
posted by Chrysalis at 3:27 AM on June 8

Abe's Books has it in various conditions and prices.
posted by cocoagirl at 3:54 AM on June 8

Apparently in the 70s they changed/removed some of the stories from the original 1965 version... the Irish one etc...
posted by Chrysalis at 4:05 AM on June 8

I have the 1965 edition of Busy, Busy World, and it's not in there.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:11 AM on June 8

Does she remember if it was one of his big books, or one of the small ones? I have a lot of Richard Scarry books around here, and would happily flip through some.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:15 AM on June 8

OK, procrastinating like crazy here... It's not in Funniest Storybook Ever or What Do People Do All Day? (both the unabridged versions). Not in the either edition of Best Word Book Ever. Best Read-It-Yourself Book Ever has the simpler sentences, but the farmer is Patrick Pig.

I really should get back to work, but if she remembers any more details about the book (e.g. the size, what sort of an animal the farmer is) I can look through some more of the many, many books of his we have.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:22 AM on June 8

Thanks very much for your help, The corpse in the library, but I'm afraid I can't give any more clues!

She only remembers being read the story - and can't recall anything about the book itself.

If you were able to leaf through your Richard Scarry collection, that would be wonderful.

Thanks again.
posted by Blackwatch at 1:17 AM on June 9

No luck, sorry, and my kids didn't remember ever hearing of Farmer Junco. Are you sure it isn't Farmer Jones, not Junco? That has the simple language you mentioned.

Just to make things more complicated: it could be from a book he illustrated but didn't write. Maybe this list of books he wrote could help jog her memory...
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:40 AM on June 9

Hello again. No, it was definitely Farmer Junco.

Thanks very much again.

Looks like this one ain't going to be solved - unless any other readers know different?!
posted by Blackwatch at 2:14 AM on June 10

There is a post on Usenet by somebody looking for a book that contains a story about "Farmer Junco" and it mentions that the book also had a story about a polite puppy.

So it's possible that it's Richard Scarry's "Teeny Tiny Tales" which has a story called "Polite Puppy". It also has a story called "The Farm" that I've never seen before, so that might be the one about Farmer Junco.

Does your wife recognize the story as one of the books in the following picture?
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/3632/63936430.jpg

I did a search on bookfinder and it looks like the affordable used copies are of the one book edition that has 11 stories. This page has a picture of this edition:
http://www.speurders.nl/overzicht/boeken/kinderboeken/richard-scarrys-teeny-tiny-tales-engelse-tekst-14166029.html

According to one of the sellers and WorldCat, the edition with 11 stories has "The Farm":
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/22718244

I hope this is it.
posted by derforsher at 10:13 PM on October 25