All About Cows

Check out these lists for typing cows, flying cows, purple cows, and pirate cows; find out what cows have to do with whales; and learn all about sacred cows, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, and the cow that jumped over the moon. (There was even a lunar space probe named Cow.)

COOL FICTIONAL COWS

	Phyllis Gershator’s Moo, Moo Brown Cow! Have You Any Milk? (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2011) is a clever extension of the familiar nursery rhyme “Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?” – explaining that wool makes a blanket for a little boy’s bed. The rhyme moves on to “Honk, honk, gray goose, have you any down?” (for the pillow), then to bees, hen, and cow, who furnish a bedtime snack. The book ends with animals and boy asleep. A lovely bedtime pick for ages 2-5.
	In Andy Cutbill’s The Cow That Laid an Egg (HarperCollins, 2008), Marjorie is depressed because she’s just an ordinary cow, and can’t ride a bicycle or do handstands like the other cows. Then – after some clever chickens get to work with a paintbrush – Marjorie wakes to discover that she’s (apparently) laid a black-and-white Holstein-cow-spotted egg. The other cows refuse to believe in Marjorie’s egg and accuse the chickens, who refuse to tell. (“Prove it!”) Eventually Marjorie’s egg hatches a chick – whose first word out of the shell is “Moo!” With hilarious illustrations by Russell Ayto. Pair this one with Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hatches the Egg. For ages 2-6.
	Sequels starting Marjorie and her adopted daughter Daisy include The Cow That Was the Best Moo-ther, The Best Cow in Show, and First Week at Cow School.
	In Karma Wilson’s rhyming The Cow Loves Cookies (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2010), readers learn what farm animals eat – the horse loves hay, the geese munch corn – but the cow loves cookies! At the end, cow and farmer share a snack of cookies and milk. For ages 3-6.
	In Doreen Cronin’s wonderful Click, Clack, Moo (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000), Farmer Brown’s cows have acquired a typewriter and promptly begin to make their problems known: “Dear Farmer Brown, The barn is very cold at night. We’d like some electric blankets. Sincerely, The Cows.” Farmer Brown refuses and the cows go on a milk strike. All is finally resolved with the helpful intervention of Duck, who ends up with the typewriter – and promptly fires off a note announcing that the duck pond is boring and the ducks would like a diving board. Hilarious for ages 3 and up. There are several sequels featuring the Click, Clack, Moo characters.
	Put on a play! Readers’ Theater: Click, Clack, Moo is a script to accompany the book., adaptable for various numbers of actors. As it stands, it calls for multiple narrators and any number of cows.
	Cows and pirates! Moo – the star of Lisa Wheeler’s Sailor Moo: Cow at Sea (Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 2002) – has wanted to go to sea ever since she was a calf wearing a sailor hat. Eventually she gets a job on a fishing boat crewed by cats and led by Captain Silver Claw, who has a hook in place of one paw. She’s swept overboard in a storm, rescued by friendly manatees, and eventually ends up on the pirate ship of Red Angus and his gang of cattle buccaneers. For ages 3-7.
	In Phyllis Root’s Kiss the Cow (Candlewick, 2003), Luella the cow refuses to give any milk for Mama May’s hungry family of children (all in overalls) until Annalisa gives her a kiss on the nose. But Annalisa (“Never, never, never!”) is not about to kiss a cow. For ages 4-8.
	John Himmelman’s picture book Cows to the Rescue (Henry Holt and Company, 2011) is one of a series, beginning with Chickens to the Rescue (2006) and Pigs to the Rescue (2010). They’re all hilarious: problems arise and frantic hordes of animals arrive to (more or less) save the day. Here, it’s the day of the county fair and the Greenstalks’ car won’t start. Enter the cows! For ages 4-8. (And up.)
	In Lisa Wheeler’s rhyming Sixteen Cows (Harcourt, 2006), Cowboy Gene of the Biddle Ranch and Cowgirl Sue of the neighboring Waddle Ranch each have eight beloved cows, summoned each night by special come-home songs (to which the cows reply in chorus: “Moo!”). Then a wind blows down the fence between the two pastures and the sixteen cows become inextricably mixed up. The solution: a romance, a wedding, and a cow merger. For ages 4-8.
	What If We Changed the Book? is a lesson plan with problem-posing extensions to accompany Sixteen Cows. Targeted at grades 3-5.
	Sandra Boynton’s Amazing Cows (Workman Publishing, 2010) is a riotous 96-page collection of cow stories, poems, parodies, jokes, and games – among them the tale of the shy research assistant whose alter ego is the bovine superhero, AMAZING COW. For ages 5 and up.
	Carmen Agra Deedy’s 14 Cows for America (Peachtree Publishers, 2009) is the picture-book version of a true story in which, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Kemeli Naiyomah travels from New York City to his home village in Kenya. There, after he tells the story of 9/11, his fellow Masai tribesman decide to give the people of America a gift of 14 sacred healing cows. A lovely and heartwarming story for ages 7-11.
	By Mark Leiknes, Cow & Boy (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008) – which began life as a webcomic – is right on for fans of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. Eight-year-old Billy and friend Cow live on the family farm, where – together – they explore life’s big questions. For ages 9 and up.
	Fans of James Thurber’s classic daydreamer Walter Mitty must see Glen Wexler’s (digitally twisted) photo-illustrated The Secret Life of Cows (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007). “When you see cows standing in a pasture blandly chewing some dreary bit of grass and staring into the middle distance, you’d never guess what lies beneath that placid exterior” – namely, a rich fantasy life featuring cyborg cows, superhero cows, secret agent cows, and rocket-propelled cows. For ages 12 and up.
	Gary Larson’s Cows of Our Planet (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1992) isn’t, I have to admit, just about cows; rather it’s a collection of Larson’s wickedly funny Far Side cartoons. The centerfold, “Cows of Our Planet,” is Larson’s twisted take on breeds of cows. For everybody old enough to appreciate it.