But cows can't lay eggs! Or can they? (The Cow That Laid an Egg - Andy Cutbill)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	The Cow That Laid an Egg - Andy Cutbill
Date:	10/04/09 (304 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lovely children's book

Disadvantages: none

Both my daughters recently were given a £1 book token from their school and nursery for World Book Day and so we took them off to our local book shop where they each carefully chose a book and put this token towards it. The Cow That Laid an Egg was my four year old daughter's choice. It is a very funny picture book written by Andy Cutbill and illustrated by Russell Ayto. I had not heard of either of these before but they have combined to produce a very entertaining book for young children.

The story is all about a cow called Marjorie, who becomes a bit of a local celebrity when she manages to do something quite unusual. At the beginning of the book we meet Marjorie feeling quite down in the dumps, because, as she sees it, she can't do anything special. Apparently the other cows do all manner of exciting things such as ride bicycles and do handstands! Marjorie is the outsider and is more friendly with the chickens than she is with the other cows.

Because the chickens care about her, they come up with a plan which means that the next morning when Marjorie wakes up she thinks that she has laid an egg! Nobody can believe it and people come from far and wide to see the egg and there is much media interest. All the other cows are very put out and they start mumbling and grumbling saying that the egg does not really belong to Marjorie. The only thing they can dothough is wait until the egg hatches. When the momentous day arrives it appears at first that all the other cows were correct in their assumption - but are they? There's a twist at the very end that totally delighted my daughter the first time we shared it together!

This is a well written and extremely funny text. The whole idea of a chicken laying an egg is very funny to a young child. Added to this cows riding bikes and trampolining and it was always bound to be a hit - which it definitely is with my daughter. The whole idea seems very cleverly thought out down to naming the cow Marjorie. The illustrations are excellent too. All the cows are particularly well depicted with lots of quirky expressions on their faces and performing crazy stunts - we really love these funny characters.

The book is quite short and easy to read. I have read it a few times with my four year old but my almost six year old can read it fairly fluently herself as the language is not particularly difficult.

The first time you read a book such as this there is always the element of surprise. This works particularly well with this story where indeed there is a surprise. However, having read it together many more times, there is now the eager anticipation that comes with knowing what is going to happen.

This book is fast becoming another favourite with my daughter and it's definitely the book of the moment!

Nursery World describes it as 'a wonderfully madcap story with wacky illustrations!' I couldn't agree more as that absolutely sums up this fantastic story.

The Cow That Laid an Egg is published by Harper Collins and has a RRP of £5.99.

Summary: A great book for sharing with small children