Product Description

One night, while the pigs and chickens are sound asleep -- KABOOM! -- Farmer George's Moo Cow disappears! A low-down Space Cowboy has whisked her off to a galaxy far, far away. What's this sweet cow to do now, forced to become the Wild Beast Earthling Moo Cow at the Inter-Galactic Rodeo? Saddle up and get ready to ride Thacher Hurd's zany trip to Planet 246 and back!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #501238 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Released on: 2003-05-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-A fast-paced, rollicking romp to space and back. "It happened one night, while Farmer George and the pigs and the chickens were sound asleep. KaBOOM!" Unsuspecting Moo Cow is abducted by Zork, an alien cowboy. Hurd winks at "Hey Diddle Diddle" and Goodnight Moon, which was illustrated by his father, as Moo Cow says "Good-bye" to the moon and zooms off to Planet 246, where she is roped into starring in the Inter-Galactic Rodeo. This mild-mannered bovine is no bucking bronco, but Zork's prodding awakens her inner beast. Whirling and twirling, dancing and prancing, she puts on a wild display-so wild and fearsome that she earns herself a one-way ticket back to Farmer George's pasture. The simple text is packed with sound effects that make it a hoot to read aloud. Storytime audiences will "KaBoom," "Sha-Zoom," "Beep Beep," and "Mooooooo" to their hearts' delight. Independent readers will discover clever details in the illustrations, which are mixed-media spreads combining cartoon animals and aliens with computer-manipulated images of lunar landscapes and swirling nebulae. Hosts of alien "zigs," "zickens," and ropin' robots provide a colorful backdrop to the Inter-Galactic Rodeo's main event. Readers can't help cheering for wide-eyed Moo Cow as she gamely travels the galaxy and ultimately parachutes back to her farm, relieved to be "an earthling Moo Cow, home again." An out-of-this-world adventure that's not to be missed.
Eve Ortega, Cypress Library, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
PreS-Gr. 2. A cow is kidnapped one night from her field by a space-alien cowboy who wants to ride her in an intergalactic rodeo on his distant home planet. At first, the cow is passive, but after the alien insults her, she dances around, wielding a red scarf like a matador, eventually giving the pesky alien a good kick. Realizing that she is more cow than they can handle, the aliens put her in a spaceship and send her whizzing back to her beloved barnyard. Hurd offers one funny picture after another, tucking collage pictures of 1950s toy robots into his colored-pencil-and-watercolor illustrations. Youngsters may recognize the exuberance of their own drawings of aliens in the renderings of this funny endeavor, with lots of subtle jokes squeezed into the simple story. Todd Morning
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Thacher Hurd is the award-winning author of Mama Don't Allow and Mystery on the Docks, both of which are Reading Rainbow feature selections; Santa Mouse and the Ratdeer; Art Dog and most recently the Growing Tree board books Zoom City and Cat's Pajamas. He and his wife, Olivia, live in Berkeley, California.

Customer Reviews

Rip Roarin' Fun
Who would've thought a story could combine cowboys and space aliens? This book took us completely by surprise. The farmer's moo-cow was kidnapped by Zork, a cowboy from a planet far away in outer space. Zork plans to ride the earthling Moo-Cow in the Intergalactic Rodeo.

My 4 year old son was delighted with the western and space themes and intrigued by the active plot and silly words. I was pleased to find such a neat, adventure-filled book with such a uniqueness to it. Great read-a-loud!