What’s in a cat tale? A cow, of course

A few weeks ago, I borrowed a book at the library called Cat Tale by Michael Hall. Since then, it’s been one of our favorite reads and you’ll soon understand why. And somehow, in a book called Cat Tale, you can spot a cow.

Cat Tale by Michael Hall

In this very funny book, three cats named Lillian, Tilly and William J. are out for a day. The story is full of homophones and a delight to read if you enjoy wordplay. It goes like this, “They pack some books and kitty chews. They chose a spot. They spot some ewes.” And so on. Until they meet our not so friendly bovine, the steer.

Cat tale – the tree cats meet a steer

The story and the wordplay continue until the words start getting mixed up and our not so friendly steer comes back into the story. This is our favorite page spread in the book.

Cat Tale – the words get mixed up and the steer comes back

I love this book and my kids love it too. If you’re looking for a fun story to read with kids age 3 to 10, this is it. And there’s even a cow in it.

Cow on a bike

I recently borrowed the hilarious children’s book Duck on a Bike by David Shannon from the library.

Duck on a bike by David Shannon

Would you expect to see a cow in this book? Well, there’s only one but it appears on several pages and makes quite a lot of funny faces worth sharing.

In this book, Duck tries a child’s bike and the farm animals all think it doesn’t look like a good way to have fun. Here’s Cow’s reaction as Duck rolls by her: “A duck on a bike? That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Duck on a bike – duck rides by the farm’s cow

By the time Duck has paraded in front of all the animals, a group of kids on bikes arrives the farm. The kids leave their bikes by the barn and suddenly, the farm animals get an idea. Can you guess what it is?

David Shannon’s duck on a bike – the farm animals stare at the bikes

Have you ever seen a cow and a horse with bigger eyes?

Are you ready for the grand finale? Here’s how you can entertain farm animals with a bunch of bikes. I present you cow on a bike. And horse on a bike, goat on a bike, pig on a bike… I think they’re ready for the circus.

Duck on a bike book – cow on a bike, horse on a bike, pig on a bike

It’s been a long time since the last cow knock knock joke

If you’re a regular of this blog, you know I’ve featured knock knock jokes with cows in the past. If you’re not a regular, you can view them here and here, both out of Sandra Boynton’s Amazing Cows book.

I recently got a new knock knock joke book for my son at the library and this one, appropriately named Knock Knock, was written and illustrated by several famous children’s book authors.

Knock Knock joke book for children

Well, wouldn’t you know it, there are two cows in this book. One is technically a wilderbeast, but the other is a real, common cow. What’s interesting is that Sandra Boynton has a very similar joke in her Amazing Cows book, but her book was published in 2010 and this one in 2007. So I guess she’s the copycat… Her joke’s drawings are still very funny so I’ll feature them in the next post, if I can get a hold of that book.

Here’s your knock knock joke to start the weekend with laughs:

Knock knock joke with impatient cow

Would a cow make a good librarian?

For his sixth birthday last week, my son got several toys but also a number of books. One of them is Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter Storybook Collection, which compiles seven Little Critter stories in one big book.

One of the stories is called Little Critter: Just a School Project. As soon as we saw the story cover, it made us wonder who this cow in the background was.

Little Critter: Just a school project

Well, it didn’t take us long to figure out the cow is the city librarian, who helps Little Critter finding a subject for his science project at school (caterpillars).

Little critter: the librarian is a cow

The glasses sitting on the top of the muzzle and their dangling chain should have given it away.

The bull who thinks he’s a rabbit

My eldest likes to read books on his own now that he’s an independent reader, so I’ve been getting him a bunch of books at his reading level from the library. One of them is called Way Out West with Pirate Pete & Pirate Joe by A.E. Cannon.

Way out West with Pirate Pete and Pirate Joe book

This book is full of adventures and surprises: a couple of missing cousins, a mystery to solve, a surprise birthday party and… a bull who thinks he’s a rabbit!

The bull who thinks he’s a big rabbit

A hopping bull who likes to crunch on carrots. Just when I thought I’d seen it all.