Moo! by David LaRochelle (review)

In this lively picture book limited almost entirely to a single word, an adventurous cow takes the farmer’s shiny red car for a joyride, but her initial glee turns to horror when she fails to negotiate a sharp turn and ends up pancaking a police car. Sent back to the farm in disgrace, the cow must then defend herself to the angry farmer—but how? The readaloud’s the real fun here, since all this adventure is conveyed by various iterations of the word “Moo”—and what a lot of possibilities it offers. A long-drawn moo follows the escaping cow up and down hills, an alarmed “Moo-moo…” (clearly Cow for “Uh-oh”) marks her doomed voyage into the sharp turn, and she explains herself to the cop with an excited pell-mell moo-nologue. The punchline (after a “Who, me?” moo, she disguises herself with a “Baaaaa!”) isn’t as rollicking as the adventure, but the silliness of the scenario will definitely be enough to entertain in its own right. Wohnoutka’s gouache illustrations have group viewing in mind, with every scene a full-spread, full-bleed streamlined image that possesses the subject focus and simple backdrops of old-school animation. Sturdy cheer is the order of the day for the figures, with solid outlines, saturated colors, and big eyes standing out against pale blue-sky backgrounds. Kids could also read this independently with only a quick acquaintance, and it would offer a great opportunity for energetic group mooing in storytime.