Edmund and Hillary: A Tale from China Plate Farm

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Hillary the hen is worried. Everyone at China Plate Farm has
ears—except her. As Hillary puts it, “the cows and sheep not only
have ears, they have earrings.” Why hasn’t she?

Edmund, a pig given to having “great ideas,” fashions ears for
Hillary from two old spoons found in the dump. Tickled pink—as pink as
her best friend Edmund—Hillary bores the farm animals with her new
“ears” until sunset. When it’s time to retire to the coop, Hillary
can’t get through the henhouse door.

Edmund and Hillary is a comic parable that delivers the message “Be
satisfied with what you are: hens don’t need ears, and pigs can manage
without wings.”

Author/illustrator Chris Jackson has a light hand with the plot; his
style is to hint, leaving young readers to flesh out the turns in the
story line. The restricted color range in his illustrations works well.
The anthropomorphic expressions on his animals’ faces mimic a wide
range of human expressions, from surprise to boredom to sheer joy. Mr.
You-Know-Who, Hillary’s foxy nemesis, makes a delightful villain.
Highly recommended.