Adventures Of Cow

Adventures of Cow

From School Library JournalPreSchool-K-This book consists of a minimal text supported by photographs of a squish toy cow posed with real farm animals and household items. Traveling in a yellow backpack, Cow arrives in a "strange land." She is obviously very confused or not very smart because she asks various misidentified farm animals how to get home, including "dogs" (actually horses), "cats" (geese), and "scary frogs" (cows). She is finally rescued by "a big bird" (a dog). Back home, Cow greets her dad (a penguin doorstop), her mom (a hippo vase), and the twins (salt and pepper shakers). Aunt Ernie (a vegetable brush) suggests that she write a book about her adventures and she becomes famous-she's even on TV (literally sitting on it). All in all, she'd rather just play checkers-a challenge, since she's sitting next to a Scrabble board. Although the illustrations lend some humor to the dry text, they are not very clever. Preschoolers may find the first few pages funny because they're smarter than Cow; however, the silliness will soon lose its edge and fall flat. The joke continues far too long. For children in the concrete stages of development, this book will be confusing, not funny. Other youngsters will just be bored.- Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OHCopyright