A book review by Theresa:
One of the things I always tell people browsing the shelves
for something to read is to just look at the spines of the books, pull out a
title that sounds interesting, look at the cover and if you are still interested, read
the inside flap and see if that convinces you. This one fails the first two
miserably; spine black, outline of a cloud, author’s name and the word “moo;” cover author’s name, title and a less than appealing drawing of a black and
white striped cow. Even I, who really likes this author, had a hard time
settling down to read this one.
MISTAKE! If I had never opened up Sharon
Creech’s book Moo, I would have missed some of the best characters in all of
stories. Meet Reena, her brother Luke and their parents who have decided to
abandon city life and move to rural Maine. Meet also their very unusual
neighbor Mrs. Falala and her animals, a pig named Paulie, a cat named China, a
snake named Edna and a very special cow named Zora. They are the central
characters in Reena and Luke’s summer when their parents offer Mrs. Falala, who
was very old and rumored to make weird things happen, the services of their
children to help out around her small farm.
Less than thrilled the two kids
find themselves doing chores way out of their comfort zone—shoveling out a
barn, not fun. Slowly there is a change of attitude when they are challenged
with Zora, the loud, belligerent cow and lose their initial fear, ultimately becoming
very attached to her. Zora expands their world and teaches them that a little
kindness works well for both animals and people.
This novel is written partly
in prose and partly free verse which helps heighten the emotion and the mood
and make this a story and characters that will stay with you for a long time.
For grades 5-8
