When Cows Come Home

 

When Cows Come Home by David L. Harrison and illustrated by Chris L. Demarest.

Grade level: Pre-k - 1

Genre: Fantasy

Have you ever wondered what cows do on the farmer when the farmer isn’t looking?  Would you believe that they play tag and go swimming?  Would you believe that they know how to ride bikes?  Read this funny, rhyming story to find out just what cows do when the farmer has his back turned. 

This is a great book for young children.  The full page pictures provide humorous images of cows doing activities that real cows don’t actually do.  The print is easy to read and easily stands out amongst the full page images.  There is not a lot of print per page, which makes it easier for young children to stay focused on the events happening on each page.  Also, each section of text rhymes, creating an easy flowing story line for young readers.  The pictures are nicely detailed so even young children who can’t read are able to just look at the image and enjoy the humor within this book.

This book is good because it offers a good laugh to everyone, even someone my age.  The words are easy for beginner readers to sound out and read.  The pictures offer a good explanation of anything a young child may not understand, such as, “They fiddle their fiddles…” If a child does not know what a fiddle was its okay because the pictures show many cows playing fiddles, so a child can easily make the connection and learn what a fiddle is.  I definitely would keep this book in my classroom for children to read on their own free time because it is a good book to put a smile on a child’s face.  However, I don’t think that I would choose to teach a lesson with this book because it does not seem to offer much more than humor. 

This book meets MA curriculum standard 1 in reading literature for first grade which states that, “Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.”  This story provides opportunities to ask which activities that the cows take part in are activities that real cows would not actually be able to do.  This book also meets MA curriculum standard 7 in reading literature for first grade which states that, “Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.”  Students are able to use the images to see what each activity that the cows take part in looks like.  This will help to be able to describe each of these things, especially if they would not understand an activity without the image (such as fiddling).