One of my favorite blogs, Design Mom, has a weekly-ish feature that Gabrielle calls, “Book of the Week”. I have always loved this idea. For myself, I worry and over-think having a weekly feature but I’ve realized that I too can make it a weekly-ish feature and no one will be too upset. I plan to feature picture books, easy readers, early chapter books, middle grade books and grown up books too. Pretty much whatever seems like a good idea at the time.

So here goes…

Moo! by David LaRochelle is one of my latest favorites. Moo! is a picture book that tells a full and funny story using one word (with one other funny word added in at the very end). With one word, clever illustrations and lots of punctuation, LaRochelle tells the story of a bored cow who goes for a joy ride in his farmer’s car.

It turns out that this particular cow should have stuck to grazing as he hits a rock and lands the car smack on top of a police vehicle. What follows are excuses, excuses, excuses and lots of hoof flapping.

That’s all I’ll write for now because I wouldn’t want to spoil the clever ending…

Moo! is the perfect book for so many occasions. It is super fun as a read aloud but also perfect for emerging readers. With just one word, even the youngest reader can ‘read’ the entire book while gaining a greater concept of word and fluency. And then this book is absolutely great to bring in for a class read aloud. Last fall I was invited to read to Katherine’s second grade class. With a reminder to use quiet voices, the entire class read this book aloud with me and they had a blast.

I hope you all enjoy this book as much as we do.