What to Read, What to Read?

Moo by Sharon Creech

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Yes, there is a cow in the book Moo, written by Sharon Creech.  Not only is there a cow, it is a belted Galloway – a black cow with a bold and broad stripe of white around its middle.  Originally from Scotland, the breed was nearly lost until placed on an endangered list and carefully bred for its numbers to recover.  A belted Galloway decorates the black and white cover of Moo.

Zora, Mrs. Falala’s Belted Galloway, is young and unused to cooperating with humans.  She is perfectly happy to occupy a pasture and be left alone.  Mrs. Falala is an eccentric who lives alone in Harbor Town, plays a haunting flute – and owns a cat, a hog, a bird, and Zora, the cow.

Reena and Luke along with their parents are newcomers to Maine.  A chance meeting in a doctor’s office introduces Reena’s mother to Mrs. Falala, and the story begins from there. Their mom has promised to share some books with Mrs. Falala, and Reena and Luke are designated to deliver them.  Unfortunately, they are the wrong books, and somehow, the children are determined to have been disrespectful!  As an apology, they are assigned to help Mrs. Falala, a fate worse than death in the children’s minds!

In the process of coming to know Mrs. Falala and her menagerie, the two begin to respect her knowledge, her caring and to love those animals!  Reena is chosen to show Zora at the coming livestock show.  She leans on her new friends at a nearby farm to learn to groom and train the reluctant cow.  But that too is an opportunity for Reena to grow up herself. Luke forms a bond with Mrs. Falala, as well, sharing his love of drawing with her.

This is a good story.  Creech incorporates some of the literary devices she used earlier in Love that Dog and Hate that Cat, both explorations of poetry with bold looking type and pages, and that makes reading this book fun.  (Recommended for upper elementary and middle schoolers.) — review by Jan Cravens, Youth Services assistant