Looking after or caring for someone or something

📝 She spent the morning tending the garden, watering each plant in turn.

📖 Roz spends her days tending the cows — feeding them, guiding them to pasture, and watching over the whole herd.

Done in a careful, orderly, step-by-step way

📝 He was methodical about his homework, finishing one subject before starting the next.

📖 Roz is methodical in her work, following the same careful order each day so that nothing is ever forgotten.

Showing careful and steady effort in work

📝 The diligent student checked her answers twice before handing in the test.

📖 A diligent worker, Roz never tires and never cuts a corner, caring for every cow with equal attention.

Hard-working and busy

📝 The industrious ants carried crumbs back to their nest all afternoon.

📖 The farmer soon sees that his new robot is endlessly industrious, working through any weather without complaint.

To join in and become part of a group

📝 It can take time for a new pupil to integrate into a class.

📖 Slowly, Roz begins to integrate into the life of the farm, becoming part of its daily rhythm.

To live together in the same place at the same time

📝 In the pond, frogs and fish coexist without troubling one another.

📖 Robot and cattle learn to coexist, sharing the barn and the fields in a quiet, growing trust.

Able to be relied on; trustworthy

📝 Her bicycle was old but dependable, never letting her down on the way to school.

📖 The cows come to see Roz as dependable — always there at milking time, always gentle and calm.

Paying close attention; quick to notice the needs of others

📝 The attentive waiter refilled our glasses before we even had to ask.

📖 Roz is attentive to each cow's mood and health, noticing the smallest sign that something is wrong.

Relating to cows or cattle

📝 The vet specialised in bovine illnesses and visited dairy farms across the county.

📖 Roz learns the bovine language of lows and grunts, until she understands the cows as she once understood the island animals.

Having a clear aim; done with determination

📝 She walked into the exam with purposeful, confident strides.

📖 Roz's movements are purposeful and sure; she was built to be useful, and here at last she has work to do.

A change made in order to suit new conditions

📝 Growing a thick winter coat is one adaptation that helps animals survive the cold.

📖 Caring for cattle is a new adaptation for Roz, who once survived a wild island but had never run a farm.

Someone who protects or looks after another

📝 After their parents died, their aunt became the children's guardian.

📖 In time, Roz becomes a guardian of the herd, standing watch over the cows like a silver protector.

Wanting to keep someone or something safe from harm

📝 The mother bird was fiercely protective of the chicks in her nest.

📖 When danger threatens the cows, Roz grows fiercely protective, just as she once protected the island animals.

Quick to notice things

📝 An observant reader will spot the tiny clue hidden in the first chapter.

📖 Always observant, Roz misses nothing — a limping calf, a broken fence, a storm gathering on the horizon.

Giving human qualities, such as speech or feelings, to animals, objects, or ideas

📝 'The wind whispered through the trees' is personification, because wind cannot really whisper.

📖 Peter Brown uses personification throughout the farm chapters, giving the cows names, voices, and personalities of their own.