Wow, It's a Cow!

We had a lot of fun with Wow, It's A Cow! in the 18-months to 2-years range. It's a cute little book, but I wouldn't advise anyone to rush out and buy it. There's nothing particularly special about it. This is just a fun little romp that's easily interchangeable with a bunch of other, similar books.

Still, Charlie really enjoyed this one for several months. It seemed to have a lot of staying power for him. The story is about a farmer looking for his cow. He comes across lots of animals, but they are not the cow. Finally, on the last page, he finds the cow in the barn.

The amusement factor in the book is that on each page, the cow is drawn doing what some other animal does, and then you lift the flap and it shows the actual animal underneath. So the cow gets to pull a plow (horse), swim in the pond (duck), and perch on a tree branch (bird), among other things. Charlie always liked to lift the flap and announce the animal that was actually doing those things.

The book is also written in rhyme. "If it goes 'Neigh, neigh,' / And it's pulling a plow, / It's not a cow! / Of course, / It's a . . . horse!" These are relatively cute but uninteresting from an adult's perspective (except that I always wanted to rhyme a certain swear word with "duck" ...). The illustrations, too, are cute but nothing special.

It's a cute book for learning about animals, their sounds, and their jobs or characteristics. It's also fun as a lift-the-flap book and general entertainment. But it's not great literature.