Sharing Shtick! Interrupting Cow and the and the Chicken Crossing the Road by Jane Yolen

The cows in the barn are enjoying a brunch of hay, chatting with the other bovines, until... Interrupting Cow intervenes.

"KNOCK KNOCK."

The cows are not the brightest beasts in the barn, so they answer:

"WHO'S THERE? (They never learn.)

"MOO!"

As always, Interrupting Cow cracks up, giggling helplessly, at her joke, while the rest of the herd, along with all the other inhabitants of the barn, run for the tall timber.

HUMMPH!

Interrupting Cow is nonplussed as she watches her companions vanish into the woods. Even the ducks in the pond swim away so fast that they leave foamy wakes. Owl and Crow change their flight plans when they spy her from the sky. What's the matter with everybody? Doesn't anyone like a good joke?

SHE'D ALWAYS BEEN CONTENT.

NOW SHE WAS LONELY... AND POSSIBLY JUST A LITTLE SAD.

But ahead Interrupting Cow spots a single elderly rooster standing at the edge of the asphalt, wanting to cross the road, but afraid of the cars and trucks and tractors whizzing by, his feathers blowing in the breeze from each of the speeding vehicles. Interrupting Cow feels the need to intervene.

"KNOCK KNOCK?" SHE SAYS.

"TOO LATE FOR BAD JOKES," SAID THE ROOSTER, "IF THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE PLANNING."

MY JOKE IS NOT BAD," SAID INTERRUPTING COW. "IT ALWAYS MAKES ME SMILE."

Rooster is not convinced. He suggests maybe she's been working the wrong audience or needs some new material.

"MOO!" INTERRUPTED INTERRUPTING COW.

Rooster is not amused.

"MIGHT AS WELL ASK WHY THIS OLD CHICKEN IS STANDING BY THE ROAD! GO ON! ASK!"

Interrupting Cow is suspicious that she's about to be made the straight man in this act. But she can't help herself."

"WHY ARE YOU STANDING BY THE ROAD? ARE YOU CHICKEN?" SHE ASKED.

"I AM A CHICKEN!" SAID ROOSTER.

Interrupting Cow felt like interrupting.

"MOO!"

It was the first thing that came into her head.

"ANY JOKE CAN GET TIRED," SAID THE ROOSTER.

"LIKE COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO?" COW ASKED.

Rooster giggled.

"SEE?" SAID ROOSTER. YOU JUST NEEDED SOME NEW MATERIAL."

Rooster gets safely across the road and Interrupting Cow gets a dubious new punchline in Jane Yolen's Ready to Read Level 2 latest, Interrupting Cow and the Chicken Crossing the Road (Simon Spotlight, 2021).

Any parent who has lived through the "Guess What?" "What?" "That's What!" stage of youthful humor, will be familiar with its inevitable "groaner" comedy, but this second book in Simon and Schuster's new beginning reader series combines the noted author Jane Yolen with illustrator Joelle Dreidemy's wacky rustic characters in a way that will keep emerging readers turning those pages. Share this one with Yolen's first in series, Interrupting Cow. As Kirkus Reviews writes,"Yolen tackles yet another classic inane joke and infuses its subject with heart and humor."