Following my previous review, a brilliant book for much older children (possibly), here is something delightful for younger readers.
Moo to UK
Strictly speaking, Moo is not a new book for 2021, but this year it has been published for the first time here in the UK, by Guppy Books. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Week a short while back, but I think it amply merits another recommendation. I would certainly not want UK readers to miss it. The tale itself is one that you might call classic Sharon Creech, one of a number of very fine US children’s writers and a previous winner of the Carnegie Medal. (See my post from Sept ‘20.)
Moo-ving tale
In this book a young girl is uprooted from her city home and moved to rural Maine. The landscape and atmosphere of this area of New England are beautifully evoked. Inevitably, much of her life is disturbingly disrupted, but her gradual adaptation to country living is considerably helped as she develops a relationship with a very difficult (‘onery’) cow, not to mention the beast’s elderly and, in her way, equally difficult owner. At heart it is a story about change: about accepting change and taking advantage of it, about change in circumstances, but also about change as a person.
Poetry in moo-tion
The narrative is written in free-form poetry, but this does not make it difficult to read. In fact, quite the reverse. This style serves to enhance the storytelling very considerably. The poetry adds a flow to the language and an intensity to events and emotions. However, whilst I am a great enthusiast for reading aloud to children, this particular text does need be seen, rather than heard - or at least both together. Layout and typography are significant contributors.
It is a most endearing story but also a gently challenging one. It is often very funny too. Those young readers who enjoyed her previous Saving Winslow, also published here by Guppy, should certainly warm to this one. Anyone who has not yet read that charming earlier story should hasten to make up the deficit.
