Cows Can’t Fly
By David Milgrim
Books about animals I usually find to be funny, however, this was not the case for Cows Can’t Fly. The story starts out with a boy drawing a picture of flying cows and when his picture is blown away the boy uses his imagination to try to convince others around him that cows are actually flying. It is a cute story but honestly I thought that it was similar to other stories I have read about farm animals. I was also surprised by the text. The words used in the text were simple and not that imaginative. I was expecting a humorous text and what I got was a straight forward text that did not inspire.
The illustrations were not very inspiring either. There were bright colors used and the illustrations were big but there was nothing especially eye catching about them. There was little detail in the pictures, which is something that I think children really enjoy about picture books. They love to point out other things that are going on in the illustrations and talk about them, but with this book there is not much to talk about other than the main illustration.
I have read so many silly and imaginative children’s books with farm animals as the main characters, Click Clack Moo and When the Cows Came Home are some examples, that reading this straightforward book was sort of disappointing. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations going into it, not every book about farm animals will be as funny as Click, Clack, Moo, but I was disappointed none the less. I might recommend reading this book if you have a unit on farm animals or if your child is particularly fond of cows but other than that I would opt for a different book.