The Cow Who Clucked

by Denise Fleming

Cow has lost her moo―can she find it again?

Having lost her moo, Cow is stuck clucking. The only thing to do is go out and find that moo! Join Cow and her friends as they conduct their vocal barnyard search. Cow tramps through a wheat field and on into the starry night until she is too tired to look any farther. But in the end, Cow and her moo are reunited, and all is well.

The simple repetition will have children chanting right along with Cow―" It is not you who has my moo! "

Using a van Gogh-inspired palette and art style, Caldecott Honor winner Denise Fleming has created a character who will appeal directly to a preschooler's sense of humor.

The Cow Who Clucked is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Storytime, Childrens, Fiction, Humor, Fantasy

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Denise Fleming has written and illustrated many children’s picture books, including In the Tall, Tall Grass, Shout! Shout It Out!, and Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy. She won a Caldecott Honor for In the Small, Small Pond. Denise creates her colorful illustrations by pouring colored paper pulp through hand-cut stencils. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/denise...
http://www.simonandschuster.com/autho...

Reviews

[eRin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cow wakes up and her moo is gone. Where is it? She has to find it and get it back, so she sets off to search the farm. She comes across many animals: fish, snake, cat, dog, duck and more. But none of the animals have her moo. Will she ever get it back?

I didn't really care for this. The illustrations are too dark and messy for my liking, and the story is kind of boring. I can see how it would be good for toddlers to match animal sounds with different animals, but I think there might be better books out there for that lesson.

[Sonja Nordstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this book to read to a 3-year-olds at a preschool. Instead of reading it myself, I played the accompanying CD. The narrator's voice, along with the other sounds, held the children's attention. This book held their attention. They asked to have it re-read to them several times.

[Laurie B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Denise Fleming's art and other of her books, particularly 5 Little Ducks. But I found this one a bit too long, considering the wordy repetition. Repetition is great, but I felt like this book either needed other passages to mix it up or needed to have fewer pages. I can't imagine getting through this entire thing with a group, though it may work as an individual read-aloud. I suppose it could work if instead of the adult reading everything, you ask the child/children what they think each animal will say to the cow and then continue with Cow's response. But I generally think there are better animal sound books out there. I was also disappointed by the abrupt ending.

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a fun little story about a cow that is clucking and searching for the animal who took its moo. Very fanciful and entertaining.

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cow has lost her moo, so she sets off to find it. However, none of the animals she runs across during the day has her moo. She finally heads back and...

Good repetition, will have to see how it goes over in my farm story time.

[Lindsey Kotynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book, The Cow Who Clucked, starts with a cow that wakes up to realize that she has lost her moo. She begins to search for her moo among all of her animal friends. When they make their own animal noise, the cow moves to her next friend in order to find her moo. The illustrations are very unique and essential to the story. Denise Fleming, the author, uses pulp painting to illustrate her books, which is a very interesting art form. This book is a great resource to teach children the different noises that animals make. The noises that Fleming describes are accurate and the pictures that go along with the noise can help the children associate the two. This is a great book and I would highly recommend reading it to your children, or for your own enjoyment! Denise Flemings illustrations and descriptive words are not something that you want to miss.

[Lorilynn Pumphrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Copyright - Denis Fleming
Number of Pages - 40
Book Format - Print
Reading Level - PreK- 1 ; GR level I
Genre - Fiction
Lit Requirement -Predictable Books and Word Play

Summary: Cows don’t cluck and they’re also not
detectives, but this cow is on a mission. Follow him on his journey to find out who stole Cow’s moo!

Response: This story story would be a good read for early readers. The plot was very repetitive and got boring. However, would be a fun read aloud for young kids learning animal sounds!

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably okay for small children who are learning animal sounds, although I'm sure there are better books for that objective than this one. Kids could act out the sounds with this book as the cow wanders through the barnyard. When a story lacks substance, I prefer that it make up for it by having outstanding illustrations. This was an unfortunate case of a 'blah' story (a cow who searches around the barnyard for the animal who took it's 'moo') and unmemorable pictures to illustrate it.

[Tahya Bruce · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was personally not one of my favorites. It was very repetitive in what was being said on each page and it almost got boring. I feel like the kids would lose interest because it is so repetitive and they know what is going to come next and wont have that excitement to try and figure out what will come next. In my opinion, I would not recommend this book.

[Brenna Call · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kinda fun, I thought it would have been better if it wasn't so repetitive though. It needed a little more explanation for how that sounds got mixed up I thought.

[Bri Zabriskie · Rating 2 out of 5]

seriously? The only benefit I see from this book is learning animal sounds.

[Katy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy repetitive story with animal sounds. Blah ending.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Annoyingly repetitive.

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

wasn't that good, and the kids didn't really get into it.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both of my boys asked, while we reading it for the first time, how much longer the book was.

[Khari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was a swing and a miss.

I was asked to pick up English picture books for a colleague of mine while I was back in the states. She has a young daughter and wants to practice English with her by reading picture books. I love to read, I want everyone to love to read, I started this Project Picture Book so that I would have a list of picture books that are great that I can go to when I want to buy something for friends of mine who have young kids. So, I went shopping. I went resale shopping because brand new books are expensive, and I would rather buy a lot of books for a child than one. Project Picture book came in handy, because I found 5 books that I had rated 5 stars while perusing the local goodwill. But I didn't think 5 was enough so I bought a bunch of Dr. Seuss books and Berenstain Bears books as well because they are at least classics. After binge reading them I learned that even classics can sometimes be a miss, but this one? This one I bought just because the title sounded fun. I assumed it would be good because it's a scholastic.

Well.

I won't be making that assumption again.

First of all, you open it up and the first page is clearly a reference to Vincent Van Gogh's starry night. Then the next page has a quote from Vincent Van Gogh. You would assume that this would have something to do with the story.

It doesn't. It just forms the background to the last page. Does it have anything to do with the last page? No. Literally just the background. Is it supposed to imply that this entire story was just a dream the cow had? That's dumb.

I didn't like the story, it was boring and slow moving. It had all the elements of being good: good illustrations, onomatopoeia, a clear pattern of events. But it was boring, literally the only thing that changed on each page was the animal and the animal sounds, oh, and the verb of motion that the Cow used. I know that this is a good thing, that it gives kids a pattern to follow, and gets them involved, but too much repetition is also not good. If there is build to the repetition, great, but there's not even a build here, it's just the exact same thing over and over and over again. Boring. Overpriced. A complete miss.

Story: Boring
Art: Cute
Price: $16.51

[Jess Bergoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: A Cow discovers that she has lost her moo, and she decides to go out and find where it went. The Cow meets a lot of animals on the farm, only to find out that they do not have her moo. Finally, when she meets with Hen, she learns that Hen has had her moo. In the end, Cow gets her moo back, and all the animals share their sounds.

Review: I love the concept of a cow losing her moo, and trying to get it back! Denise Fleming's stories are perfect for young readers. Who doesn't love cute animals and a funny story? I think children would enjoy how this story is repetitive, and they can participate throughout a read aloud.

Pair: I would pair the book, "The Cow Who Clucked," with another Denise Fleming book, "Barnyard Banter." The book, "Barnyard Banter," is also about farm animals and the sounds they make. Just like "The Cow Who Clucked," this book allows children to read along and make all the animal noises.

Quote: The one line that appears throughout the story is, "And on she went." I like the idea of having children read this line during a read aloud. I also think it models a style of writing, which children can incorporate in their creative writing.

[Mason Hazelwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the cow who clucked, the pattern that is formed is the cow asking the same question to all animals on the farm. During his search to find who took his moo he wonders through the farm only to find that the hen took his moo. The illustrator for this book utilizes dark colors and full-page spreads to tell the story. While the pictures are semi realistic they have a more childlike appearance to them and are slightly imperfect. The pages have a noise or grain over them that makes the pictures seem more childlike. The dark background blends well with the animal colors making the scenes seem whole. I would probably use this book to introduce sounds and words to kindergarten students as the words are few and the pictures match the words. Students could say the animal sound during the read aloud. This would be fitting for 3-6-year olds.

[Carlos Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reason I chose this book is because I always enjoyed a good book about a cow and the farm. When I was little a family member had a farm and I loved hearing the sounds. So in the story the Cow had woken up and learned she had lost her moo. Cow then went on to find her moo by asking all the other animals you would find on the farm. It has great artwork and connects farm animals and their sounds. I think if we were working on something fun about animals this would be a fun book to go over because it is very simple in language and creates a fun reading environment that children will enjoy especially the artwork.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cow wakes up and find she has lost her moo (she now says cluck) and she goes around making clucking sounds at the other farm animals on a search for her moo. This is the pattern of literally almost every page:
Cow [verb]. "Cluck, cluck," said Cow. "[animal sound]," said [animal which the cow encountered]. "It is not you who has my moo," said Cow. And on she went.

This pattern was boring and infuriating to me as a reader. One other thing to note is that the illustrations (apparently made by pulp painting, a paper making technique, according to the jacket cover) are inexplicably done in the style of Van Gogh.

[Kassie Justice]

The illustrations in this book were very rustic-like which aligned perfect with the setting of this book on a farm. We follow the cow through the community of animals in search of her moo, great suspense for young readers. The cow begins to lose hope in finding her moo and heads back to the barn. The cow finds the hen back at the farm, chicken is mooing and cow is clucking, humorous for children and able to play around here. The story ends with a cow who moos and a chicken that clucks. The words in this book are written as if they are painted onto the picture with no white space which holds readers attention.

[Kaci Beesecker]

A story on a cow whose moo got switched with a cluck. She went on her way around the farm asking the different animals if they had taken her moo, only to find that none of the animals had taken her moo. She was going to give up and head back to the barn when she passed Hen, who mooed back at the cow, and they were able to switch cluck and moo.

I would use this in a preschool classroom to teach the students about the different sounds that animals make. I could create cutouts of animals and then add sounds that they have to match the animal to.

[Lara Lamb · Rating 3 out of 5]

One morning cow wakes up and her moo has disappeared so naturally she must go look for it! As she explores the barnyard looking for her moo we are introduced to other animals who let us know what sound they make. At the end of the book cow finds her moo. Other than being a good book for kindergarten or preschool and learning different sounds the animals make I really just don't find this book to be a useful tool.

[Amy Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a book that is drawn in a way that is so evidently Fleming's style and it's GREAT.  It's also so cute, and is absolutely perfect for young ones learning which farm animals say what in a fun way that almost suspends belief.  I'd definitely recommend this for any teachers with a farm animal unit and for children who really like cows.

Review cross-listed here!

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Cow wakes up one morning and clucks, she discovers she’s lost her moo. She sets out to find it, but every animal she meets has his or her own sound, not her missing moo. Discouraged, she heads for the barn. Will she ever find her moo?

This laugh-out-loud tale, with its wide variety of animals, is certain to keep young readers delighted. The colorful illustrations enhance this humorous tale that’s certain to captivate and entertain young children.

Highly recommended.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still very much in the Denise Flemming camp, especially for very young children. I couldn't say whether this is the best animal sounds book, but it does give me as a presenter so many opportunities to rope children in to participation, to practice animal noises and animal behavior information, and to add in letters and counting. And kids always love silliness, and this book really lends itself to being silly!

[Annie Weiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cow Who Clucked was an enjoyable book for rhyming and kept you wondering what animal would come up next but it didn't seem to have a larger meaning behind the book. A cow who lost its voice trys to find it but when she get tired and decided to head back to the barn, she finds her voice again. This is more of a fun book rather than a fun book with a meaning behind it. I recommend for children who like animals and want to have fun with the noises they make.

[Becca Peterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just a silly like book. It was very repetitive. It was a book about a cow who lost his moo and was clucking instead. The asked all the different animals if they had his moo and then they talked, and none of them had his moo except the last one he asks which was the hen. When he asked the hen if he had his moo he said "MOOOOOO". So, in the end they switched their sounds back. It was a cute book.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being fond of cows and cattle I loved this title and it would be a fun read aloud as it has a repetitive refrain spoken by cow as she visits various animals who say he’ll as scow searches for her lost moo.
The illustration of the cow’s head close up on the fifth page is terrific and fills 90% of the page.
Fleming uses pulp painting which is a papermaking technique to make her illustrations and they are always very colorful.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cow wakes up to discover that she has lost her "moo."

This picture book introduces young readers to common farmyard animals and their animal sound sounds.

The text features a repeated phrase that allows readers to participate in the story and anticipate what will happen next.

"The illustrations were created using colored cotton fibers, hand-cut stencils, and squeeze bottles." (verso title page)