It's lunchtime and the farmer's hungry, but his lunch box is empty! He turns to all the animals on his farm for help, the sheep, cows, horses and geese, but they are all being very secretive. Are they hiding his lunch, or a much bigger and better surprise? The delightful illustrations develop the text, providing lots of points for discussion.

This is a Band 01A/Pink A book in the Collins Big Cat reading programme which offers emergent readers very simple text supported by illustrations. This is a story with predictable structure and patterned language. A map of the farm showing all the animals on pages 14 and 15 helps children recap the main events of the story, and provides a wealth of speaking and listening opportunities. This story supports learning around personal, social and emotional development. For more guided reading books in this Collins Big Cat band, try Minibeasts (9780007185375) written by Siobhan Hardy and illustrated by Steve Lumb.

This book is part of a book series called Collins Big Cat .

This book has been graded for interest at 3-6 years. This book is part of a reading scheme, meaning that it is a book aimed at children who are learning to read. This reading scheme has multiple levels.

There are 16 pages in this book. This book was published 2010 by HarperCollins Publishers .

John Gordon, a Geordie by birth, moved to East Anglia with his family at the age of twelve. He served in the Navy during the Second World War and afterwards worked as a journalist. He is widely recognized as one of the finest contemporary writers of horror and the supernatural. His books include The Burning Baby and Other Ghosts, Gilray's Ghost, The Flesh Eater and The Midwinter Watch. Married with two grown-up children, he lives in Norwich. Paul Shipton is an award-winning children's author. He published his first children's book in 1991, (Zargon Zoo). He lives and works in Wisconsin, USA. Collins UK has been publishing educational and informative books for almost 200 years.