HarperCollins
August 29, 2017
288 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon
Fans of Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog and Hate That Cat will love her newest tween novel, Moo. This uplifting tale reminds us that if we’re open to new experiences, life is full of surprises. Following one family’s momentous move from the city to rural Maine, an unexpected bond develops between twelve-year-old Reena and one very ornery cow.
When Reena, her little brother, Luke, and their parents first move to Maine, Reena doesn’t know what to expect. She’s ready for beaches, blueberries, and all the lobster she can eat. Instead, her parents “volunteer” Reena and Luke to work for an eccentric neighbor named Mrs. Falala, who has a pig named Paulie, a cat named China, a snake named Edna—and that stubborn cow, Zora.
This heartwarming story, told in a blend of poetry and prose, reveals the bonds that emerge when we let others into our lives.
Even if you are beyond the Middle Grade novel reading age, you really may want to read Sharon Creech's new release, Moo.
Moo alternates between verse and short chapters of prose to tell Reena's story. A city girl who is used to the bustle of urban life, of museums and public transportation and people all around, Reena isn't expecting her family to decide to move to rural Maine. Even if it may have, technically, been her idea.
Things in their new home are quite different - and not exactly like what she's read about or seen in books. Reena and her brother Luke don't know what to do when their parents volunteer them to help Mrs Falala - and her animals.
One of the things I most appreciated about Moo was that it gave readers a look at both city life and r rural life but without making one look better than the other. If you are more familiar with open fields and livestock than subways, you can enjoy seeing Maine, the cows, the animals and that life through someone just experiencing it. If youwith two're like Reena and may not have ever seen a cow in person, you can experience things with her.
The author does a really fantastic job putting her characters into a new, very unfamiliar setting, with equally new and unfamiliar experiences but Reena's enjoyment or discovery of the new is not at the expense of the old.
Moo is a sweet, funny, possibly educational (depends how much you knew or didn't know about cows) read. Reena's relationships with her parents and her brother Luke, the beginnings of her life in Maine, and caring for Zora all make for a great read for MG readers and beyond.
finished copy received, for review consideration, from publisher
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