There's a Cow in the Road!

A girl preparing for school is surprised by the number of barnyard animals gathering in the road outside

Lindbergh's ( The Day the Goose Got Loose ) breezy rhyme describes early-morning commotion just outside a girl's window: "There's a cow in the road! / And it sure is a shock / When I first wake up / At seven o'clock"). With just enough repetition to encourage young listeners to chime in, the verse tells how the cow is joined by a goat, then a sheep and so on until six antic animals become a "crowd in the road" and create some good-natured chaos. Pearson's pen-and-ink and watercolor pictures both contain engaging details (toys stashed under a bed; the amazed expressions of passers-by) and chronicle droll doings not mentioned in the text (a baby in a highchair flings cereal onto the family dog; the goat nonchalantly chews the contents of an unsuspecting paperboy's bag and later nibbles on the narrator's homework). The result is a great deal of kid-pleasing, between-the-lines action. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

``...She's a big one too,/Browsing on blossoms/Drenched with dew.'' In spritely verse, a child getting ready for school reports the drama accumulating outside her Vermont farmhouse window: traffic halts, minutes pass, and more animals congregate- -plus a paperboy treed by ``...a goat in the road! At the edge of our drive/As I pull on my socks/At seven-oh-five.'' By the time the school bus comes at ``seven forty-four,'' there are half a dozen noisy, friendly creatures waiting with the kids. The cadence propels the verse like a well-oiled ticking clock, while Pearson's dancing lines and effervescent watercolors embroider the humor at every turn, from a heap of toy animals on the little girl's bed--as numerous as those outdoors--to the cheerful crowd waving goodbye at the end. A joyous, comical pacesetter for a busy morning. (Picture book. 4-7) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.