If You Feel Like Mooing, MOO! " The Cow Who Clucked

My first run through of Denise Fleming's newest picture book, The Cow Who Clucked, yielded a "Ho, hum, another animal sounds book. Nice pictures." As I was closing the book, I caught a glimpse of the end papers, decorated with Fleming's signature pulp-painting of barnyard animals looking up at a night sky of swirling stars, and something clicked. On second look I saw that her admittedly Van Gogh-style illustrations were really something special.

This is not to say that Fleming's text is unsuccessful. It is. Cow wakes to find that her moo is gone, replaced by a definite "cluck." She goes from animal to animal, all of which produce their proper sounds. "It's not you who has my moo," she says, and m-o-o-ves on. Kids will undoubtedly pick up her refrain as Cow works her way back to Hen, whose definitive "moo" clears up the mystery. The animals swap sounds, and all is well in Mootown. Older preschoolers will also pick up on the flock of chicks who imprint on Cow's "cluck" until Cow leads them back to Mama Hen to find their own "peep" as well.

Other Fleming books too good to miss are On the First Day of Winter, which begins with "On the first day of winter/My best friend gave to me,/A red cap with a gold snap," and sings its way (to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas) to the end, when the first snowman of the season is nattily dressed, and Buster, in which a pampered only dog runs away when the family adopts a new kitten. Both have standout illustrations in Fleming's favorite pulp-painting medium and rollicking story lines to boot.