No Knock-Knocks! Interrupting Cow by Jane Yolen

"KNOCK KNOCK!"

HER NAME WAS DAISY, BUT EVERYONE CALLED HER "INTERRUPTING COW."

Most of us can enjoy the occasional Knock-Knock joke, but the residents of Daisy's barn are sick of silly jokes and constant interruptions of every activity. But her hapless friends can't resist saying "Who's there?" which results in Daisy's rolling on the barn floor helplessly, overcome with chuckles, followed by all her stable mates turning their backsides on her as only cows can!

Banned from the barn, Interrupting Cow tries out her comedy act on the ducks in the pond. They are not quacked, er, cracked up by the routine. Daisy gets the same result from some picnicking horses.

WHO'S THERE?" THEY NEIGHED.

"MOO!" SAID DAISY, DISSOLVING IN YUCKS.

Again, Interrupting Cow watches the horses' hindquarters disappearing over the hill. Like all her audiences, they fall for the joke but at the punchline, she's the only one left laughing. Not good for a comedienne! She gets the same reaction from the rest of the farm animals. Not a snicker from any critter!

But as Interrupting Cow wanders into the shady woods, she sees a dark shape in a tree, and she decides to try again.

"KNOCK KNOCK?"

"WHOOOO?" RESPONDS THE OWL.

"MOO!" SHE SAYS.

"WHOOOO?"

It seems that Interrupting Cow has found a straight man who is the comedy partner of her dreams, in Jane Yolen's Interrupting Cow (Simon Spotlight). Author of the Caldecott Medal book, Owl Moon, and with illustrator Mark Teague the hilarious and best-selling How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and the rest of the series, has close to 300 childrens' books to her credit, and now, with artist Joelle Dreimedy, Yolen has already created a sequel to this new gloriously silly story, Interrupting Cow and the Chicken Crossing the Road.