Brave Nadine: I Am Cow, Hear Me Moo! by Jill Esbaum

NADINE WAS A TRULY REMARKABLE COW.
THERE WAS NOTHING SHE FEARED. . .

SO SHE CLAIMED, ANYHOW.

Nadine's fellow heifers are dubious. They cite supposedly scary things like lightning and loud noises.

I'M NOT SCARED OF ANY OF THAT!" she sniffs.

Her sister bovines call her bluff. How about the deep, dark woods, huh? they taunt.

Secretly, Nadine knows that the woods are pretty scary, but now that she has boasted that she's the bravest of bovines, she has to follow through. She offers to lead her buddies in a woodland walk.

At first all goes swimmingly. Starla and Annette give Nadine a nudge up a tree, and she moos contentedly from the treetop.

"I AM COW. HEAR ME MOO!"

Her walk on the wild side is turning out to be a success. Starla and Annette are clearly impressed. The three sample blackberries and sniff fragrant pine cones like veteran woodsmen. But then, Starla notices that it's getting darker in the woods and points out that they soon won't be able to see how to find their way home. Nadine is swinging from a branch and reluctant to end her bravado tour. But then she spots the opening of a dark cave. What a way to show off how brave she really is!

Have you ever noticed that storybook characters ALWAYS go into the dark cave?

So of course, Nadine does. Like a tourist, she leisurely checks out the cave drawings and the sleeping bats, until she spies something that makes even her udder shudder--a pile of bones and a cow skull.

Does the fearless Nadine panic? Yes!

She dashes right out of the cave, looking back for pursuing bears, and runs right off a cliff.

Down she dives, luckily landing in an icy stream, on the banks of which she finds her bovine buddies milling around, lost and leaderless. "If you desire a virtue, assume it and it shall be yours," said Benjamin Franklin, and Nadine follows his advice. Moo-hoo-hoooo! Let's hoof it, heifers!

And when Nadine leads her little herd back home at a full gallop, Starla and Annette hail her as a hero.
Nadine knows better. She knows she should stop basking in the praise and tell them the truth.

"BUT SHE SORTA FORGOT."

Jill Esbaum's latest, I Am Cow, Hear Me Moo! (Dial Books, 2014), is the story of a bloviating bovine who has to save face and make good on her boasts whether she wants to or not.  Artist Gus Gordon's comic illustrations of Esbaum's not-so-courageous cow who finds her inner heroine after all are full of deliciously humorous details that make this one udderly delightful as a self-read or group readaloud.

It Came Out of the Sky! BOOM! by Mary Lynn Ray

ROSIE WAS A SMALL DOG WHO WAS USUALLY VERY BRAVE...

Her boy is very brave, and with him around it's easy for Rosie to be unafraid.

She's just a pup, but the local cats don't scare her.

She's not afraid of tigers either.  She knows tigers don't live in her neighborhood. (Her boy told her that.)

The big-footed garbage man doesn't frighten her with his rattly-bang cans and grrr-owling truck. Passing fire trucks with screaming sirens aren't scary.  Even the vacuum cleaner holds no terrors for the valiant Rosie.

Rosie was proud of her courage--until something comes from an unsuspected source of danger.

BOOM!   
CRACK!

It came out of the sky and the flash seemed to come right in through the window.  Lightning!  Thunder! Lots of thunder!

Rosie is scared! Where's her boy? Where can they be safe?

Author Mary Lynn Ray takes on a common fear, thunderstorms that seem to shake the whole world, in her latest, BOOM!: Big, Big Thunder & One Small Dog (Hyperion, 2013).  Rosie's experience with a storm parallels that of many youngsters, a phenomenon that comes out of the sky, suddenly.  Luckily, Rosie's boy knows where to go and what to do, and cuddled in the middle of his bed, she finds that the storm is not so scary.  Steven Salerno's illustrations tell the tale, with his little pooch's expressive ears conveying Rosie's every emotion, while his cozy, small-town setting provides a reassuring backdrop for Rosie's first scary experience, shown in arresting page layouts in which the boom and crack of the thunderstorm seem to fill Rosie's world.  This one is  good bit of bibliotherapy for storm phobic youngsters to pair with Jamie A. Swenson's comic look at thunderboomers shared by a boy and his many pets, Boom! Boom! Boom! (see my recent review here).

Here Comes Trouble: The Fox in the Dark by Alison Green

Rabbit runs home.

Darting left and right. Scampering, scrambling.

Back through the night. His ears flapping, his
tail bobbing.

It's going to be night. He's chased by a fox!

Bang! goes his door!

Who's afraid of the big, bad fox? Well, any sensible rabbit foolish enough to be caught out after dark and far from home. But Rabbit is lucky this time. Safe inside his cozy burrow, a strong door between him and danger, he lights his candle and wipes his brow. Safe at last.

But what's that?

Can that fox have traced him to his own door? But the frantic knocker is not the fox. It's Duck, equally afraid for his life, with the fox, he says, not far behind. Rabbit hates to unbar that door, but what else can he do? In comes Duck, and Rabbit ruefully makes room for him in little bed.

But that's not the end of it. Soon Mouse and Lamb also appear at the door, all being pursued, they say, by Fox in the dark, and all begging to be let in to save their very lives. Reluctantly, Rabbit takes them all in, and they squeeze into his little bed and try to find some sleep.

But then comes another RAT-A-TAT-TAT! Finally Rabbit opens his door just a crack.

"That was unwise," remarks Duck.

It is Fox--or, at least, a very little fox kit, tired, timid, and obviously lost in the dark. What else can Rabbit do? He lets the little fox in to pass the night.

But where there are little foxes, there are liable to be big foxes, and sure enough, the next time the door rattles, Rabbit opens his door to the dreaded sight of...

A FOX IN THE DARK!

But, of course, in Alison Green's The Fox in the Dark, (Tiger Tales, 2010) there's a happy ending to this chase tale, as Mama Fox is reunited with her baby and all the animals snuggle down for a peaceful night. Deborah Allwright's lovely illustrations make this little bedtime tale a soothing experience: bugbears are vanquished, and as all bedtime stories should, this one concludes with everyone tucked in for the night--this time in Mama Fox's luxuriant warm fur.