Originally, this post was going to be about favorite Christmas books (I’ll get to that in a few days), but I have to write about a great book we just discovered:  Adventures of Cow Too (Tricycle Press, 2007).  Written by Cow (as told to Lori Korchek) and illustrated with photos by Marshall Taylor, this book is the sequel to Adventures of Cow. 

In Adventures of Cow Too, we follow a small plastic toy cow with a charmingly innocent face on an adventure to the grocery store.  The book opens with Cow standing by his mom on top of a grocery list on the kitchen table.  Cow’s mom, a ceramic hippo sporting an orange gerbera daisy, says, “I’ve chipped my nose.  Will you go to the grocery store for me?”

Cow jumps for joy at the chance for a big adventure, and off we go!  Cow takes a “train to the store.” (We see Cow riding on the windshield of a school bus).  “Gosh, these grapes are heavy,” says Cow.  (We see Cow on the scale with three big grapefruits).

The charm and humor of this book lie in the obvious discrepancy between what Cow says and what we see.  That and a bunch of kooky, illogical details like cows with hippos for moms and penguins for dads (among other things).

Little kids love this story.  They are just so much smarter than Cow!  “No, silly those aren’t oranges.  They’re apples!”  “That’s not a frog—that’s a cow!” (when Cow sees pictures of cows he always calls them frogs).  Older kids (think middle school, high school, and middle-aged kids here) love this story.  It is just so goofy.  Cow asks five lovely fish packed on ice, “Excuse me, ladies, where would I find the mayonnaise?”  Cow looks at a price tag:  “The clock said 1:79.  It was time to go!” 

When you’re a two-inch tall plastic cow, the world is an awfully big place.  In fact, a grocery cart is an awfully big place.  The same goes for kids:  that kitchen table looks awfully high when you’re only two.  The grocery store is an adventure when you’re little (or even when you’re big and searching for Ben and Jerry’s).

On a deeper linguistic level, Adventures of Cow Too makes you think about words.  Why do the letters i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m mean ice cream?  We could call that frozen stuff in a bowl p-e-a-s.  It’s all arbitrary, but as long as we agree on the terms, the world makes sense. 

For some reason, Adventures of Cow Too reminds me of SNL’s Mr. Bill (remember him?).  Adventures of Cow Too is such fun–even funner than Cow’s night at the movies.  We laughed as we read and reread it.  Get the book and you’ll see.

Have any suggestions for books that are fun for both kids and grownups?  Post a comment!