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.

Identity Crisis: Cowie by Elizabeth Rose Stanton

Everyone called him Cowie because Cowie loved everything about cows.

He's a donkey who loves their soft kind eyes and their calm and steady personas.

Cowie wanted to be content like the cows.

No one rode them, or made them carry things.

With his friends, Duckie, Mouse, and Chick, Cowie sits under the tree in the pasture and decides that a cow is what he is meant to be.

He tries standing like the cows in the barn, chewing his cud and swatting flies with his tail. So far, so good. But he's still not a COW!

He tries to moo, but it comes out all wrong.

OOOOOOM!

The cows stop grazing and stare at him as only cows can stare.

Duckie and Mouse and Chick try to fine-tune his MOO.

KAEUQS!

KCAUQ!

That's no good! Maybe Cowie needs a makeover. But even with his teeth brushed and with freshly minty breath, his MOO still comes out backwards.

Will Chick, Mouse, and Duckie find a way to turn Cowie's MOO around?

Maybe cow identity is partly a contented state of mind, in Elizabeth Rose Stanton's latest, Cowie (Simon and Schuster, 2020). And at last Cowie sits quietly under his shade tree in the pasture, wearing his honorary cowbell, a bit reminiscent of little Ferdinand under his tree in Munro Leaf's classic The Story of Ferdinand. This story shares the same simple message, with Stanton's gently humorous characters done in beautiful soft watercolor illustrations set spot-art style against bright white pages. A lovely book with a lovely theme--be yourself, but be the you you want to be!

Free to Be... Tutu Me! Moo Moo and Mr. Quackers Present Moo Moo In A Tutu by Tim Miller

"Mr. Quackers, I have decided to become a ballerina!" Moo Moo announces.

Since Moo Moo is a large and clumsy white cow, that idea takes her staid buddy, Mr. Quackers, quite by surprise.

"But you have never taken ballet lessons!" points out the ever-practical Mr. Quackers.

To exhibit her zeal, Moo Moo executes a grand jete' over Mr. Quackers' prized bonsai tree.

KRRAASHHH!

"That last move is a little trickier than it looks, but I've almost got it!" says Moo Moo.

Moo Moo's credo is "I gotta be me!" and attired in pink leotard and tutu, the large bovine balletomane drags her doubtful pal along to the City Ballet, determined that her Terpsichorean talents be shared with the public posthaste.

"Try not to break anything," advises the sensible Mr. Quackers prophetically.

But it's not in Moo Moo to look before she leaps. She sneaks backstage and hides behind some scenery, waiting for the perfect dramatic moment to make her balletic debut, which comes with the full corps de ballet on stage.

"She spins! She leaps! She flies...!" cries Moo Moo.

"Brava!" cries the loyal Mr. Quackers.

The rest of the dance troupe and the patrons in the orchestra seats flee as Moo Moo makes an unceremonious crash landing in the middle of the bass drum in the pit.

"I think I am going to retire while I'm at the top of my game," Moo Moo remarks.

Tim Miller's brand-new Moo Moo in a Tutu (A Moo Moo and Mr. Quackers Book) (Balzer and Bray, 2017), introduces another pair of unlike and unlikely friends to the picture book pantheon peopled by odd pals like James Marshall's George and Martha, Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie, and  Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad. The sardonic and sensible Mr. Quackers is the perfect foil for the impulsive and tempestuous Moo Moo, a fact which Miller points up in his witty thought balloons. While the premise is certainly preposterous, Miller's seriously silly illustrations carry off this story of a quixotic cow and a mild-mannered mallard who share a sweetly enduring friendship in the first of his proposed series.

When Pigs Fly! The Cow Who Climbed A Tree by Gemma Merino

TINA WAS A VERY CURIOUS COW.

SHE HAD A THIRST FOR DISCOVERY.

HER MIND WAS FULL OF WONDERFUL THINGS.

ALL OF WHICH HER SISTERS FOUND VERY SILLY.

Her sister milkers were mostly concerned with consuming grass. They gave Tina's aspirations short shrift.

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

"RIDICULOUS!"

"NONSENSE."

Not deterred, Tina leaves her pedestrian siblings to their grazing in the meadow and takes off for the woods. The forest itself is magical, the tall trees suggesting mysteries to be discovered. And inspired, Tina decides to take leave of convention and climb one tree. Up she goes, and in the tip-top she discovers---a dragon!

Fortunately, this dragon is both vegetarian and friendly. They hit it off right away.

Tina can't wait to share her adventure with her sisters. But the conventional cows are not impressed.

"DRAGONS DON'T EXIST!"

"COWS CAN'T CLIMB TREES!"

"RIDICULOUS!"

But when Tina doesn't show up the next day for breakfast, her siblings decide to take charge of their wayward sister and set out into the woods, udders swinging resolutely, to bring Tina back to her senses and to her proper place in the pasture. But as they clomp through the woods, they can't help feeling the beauty of the greenwood. And then they see something they can't quite conceive.

A pig is climbing a tree with a sign that says...

FLYING LESSONS TODAY

Can the three bovine sisters believe their eyes? Do pigs fly? Can cows fly? And should they join in the fun?

WHY NOT?

Gemma Merino's The Cow Who Climbed a Tree (Albert Whitman/Macmillan, 2016) is a delightful flight of fancy, with both Tina and the Pig parasailing along behind the accommodating dragon. This satisfyingly silly story of thinking outside the, er, stall will resonate with kids who find it easy to think of six impossible things before breakfast. To add to the fun, Merino's illustrations are fancifully lovely, her trees straight lines with blue-green circles for foliage, abstract but capturing the sense of an enchanted wood in which a free-thinking cow can meet a vegetarian dragon and pigs can fly. This is a picture book that is a joy to the eyes, one that begs to be read with joy. School Library Journal gives this one a starred review, and Publishers Weekly adds, "... a lighthearted and amusing endorsement of leaving one's comfort zone and ignoring naysayers and giving dreams a chance."