The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash -- Trinka Hakes Noble

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

A Reading Rainbow book that was published in 1980, this funny book by Trinka Hakes Noble tells the story of a field trip gone very, very wrong.

Mother greets her daughter at the door of the apartment and asks, "How was your class trip to the farm?" The daughter replies, "Oh, boring ...kind of dull ... until the cow started crying."

Mother is confused. "A cow . . . crying?"

"Yeah, you see, a haystack fell on her."

Prying the story out of her daughter one question at a time, Mother learns that the haystack fell over because the farmer ran into it with his tractor because he was sidetracked by yelling at the pigs to get off the bus. The pigs didn't want to get off; they were having too much fun eating the children's lunches. They were hungry because the children had thrown all the corn at each other and the pigs didn't have anything else to eat. The children had to throw the corn because they were out of eggs, and they were throwing eggs because of the boa constrictor.

By now, Mother could use a nap, but the words "boa constrictor" bring her up short. It turns out that Jimmy decided to bring his pet along on the trip, and the chickens didn't like it. One of them laid an egg on Jenny's head, and it broke and oozed all over her hair. She thought Tommy threw it at her, so she threw one back, and then the egg fight broke out.

By the end of the story, so much chaos has ensued that the snake got left at the farm, but one of the pigs stayed on the bus, so Jimmy took him home instead.

"Boy, that sure sounds like an exciting trip," Mother says.

"Yeah, if you're the kind of kid that likes class trips to the farm."

(This book was published in 1980 by Dial Books and was illustrated by Steven Kellogg.)

Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I am a stay-at-home mom, author of eight published books, a freelance editor, and the mother of four incredible children. I enjoy scrapbooking, watching good movies, and taking naps.

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