When Cows Come Home Book and Audiocassette Tape Set

Memorable stanzas and animated spreads jazz up this look at the silly things cows just might do when people stop paying attention to them. "You never saw / Such cow horseplay / When Farmer looks / The other way!" writes Harrison, as several holsteins peek expectantly around the corner of a barn door. Liberated from Farmer's watchful eye, the members of the herd pedal bicycles, swim in a pond, and clown around with some braying donkeys. Harrison's use of rhyme and repetition subtly encourages beginning readers to recognize and practice key words. Demarest's splashy watercolors lend a sense of playful motion and fluidity to his characters; the cows -- who, modestly, have only the barest suggestion of udders -- execute nary a clumsy move and appear practically weightless as they finally "swish their tails / And gently sway / . . . / And head for home / In a cowlike way." A bright, appealing volume with a mischievous nature.