Customer Reviews

Clancy the Courageous Cow

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are relatively few titles out there on the market today that know how to correctly combine such seemingly disjointed elements as pro-wrestling, veal, and forgiveness in as satisfying a manner as is found in Lachie Hume's first book. The best picture books, to my mind, are the ones that balance sound writing with illustrations that complement the action in an exceedingly pleasing manner. But before all of that, you have to actually want to pick up the book. Now take a good hard look at the cover of "Clancy the Courageous Cow". Maybe I'm the only one, but it is damn difficult to resist a book where one cow is a mere half a second away from cheerily body-slamming one of his fellows. Inside the book you'll certainly find a standard different-can-be-good story, but it has just enough humor, wry watercolors, and self-awareness to please big and small fry alike.

"Clancy was born on a stormy day, a day of great disappointment for his parents." Not too surprising when you think about it. Unlike all the other Belted Galloways in the herd, Clancy is born entirely black without the requisite white stripe about his middle. All his attempts to affix a fake white belt around his middle fail miserably, but there is at least one advantage to his hue. Across a nearby fence is the grass of the fat sleek Herefords. Each year the two herds wrestle for grazing rights on the land, and each year the better fed Herefords win. Clancy finds that in the dark he's invisible and even befriends a rare all-brown Hereford by the name of Helga, which makes him quite happy. All that food inevitably leads to Clancy growing quite large, and before you know it he's been nominated as the Belted Galloways' champion. In record time Clancy wins the contest, but rather than run off the other herd, he encourages everyone to stay and tear down the fence. They do, and to Helga and Clancy is born a beautiful multi-colored little calf by the name of Clanga.

Due to the existence of "Barnyard", a CGI film where the cows have udders and male voices, I think I should mention right here and now Mr. Hume's Author's Note. In it he explains that he originally wrote this story as a 12-year-old, and his teacher took one point off of a perfect ten because Clancy, being male, was a bull and not a cow. "Clancy is technically a bull - but he'll always be a cow to me!" Consider this the litmus test for whether or not you'll enjoy this book. If the mere idea of calling udderless Clancy a bull is too much for your delicate sensibilities to handle, best to not pick up the title in the first place. If, on the other hand, you feel that the author's up front admission of the complication satisfies you, you're in for a treat.

A native of Victoria, Australia, Mr. Hume's picture book sports a particularly British sensibility. Fans of "Wallace and Gromit", for example, may find much to love when it comes to Hume's low-key characterizations. These cows will sometimes look directly at the reader with a kind of benign resignation not often found in books from the States. As an artist, Mr. Hume's images don't appear particularly complex at the start. No cow in this book has a visible mouth, for example (though they are often seen munching on grass). For all that, Hume uses his watercolors to their best advantage. I was quite taken with his softly melting pink/purple skies, distinctive night scenes, and variegated grasslands. Hume isn't afraid of speech bubbles either, using them only when they best fit one occasion or another (the cover is a good example of this). The simplicity of the drawings do sometimes make it difficult to tell what emotions a character might be feeling at any given time. Without a mouth or expressive eyes, the story has to rely on the narration to convey things like Helga and Clancy's delight over their new little daughter. Eyebrows, perhaps, would not have been amiss.

Knowing the tender worried hearts of certain parents, I suspect that one or two may find themselves perturbed at Clancy's duplicity. After all, the only reason he wins the wrestling contest (aside from practicing the moves) is that he's sneaking onto the Herefords' fields and eating their grass. Some small children, with their acute sense of right and wrong, may also wonder why it's okay for Clancy to bend the rules in this manner. The book makes it very clear, however, that the Belted Galloways are trapped in a vicious, and deeply unfair, circle. Clancy's actions are a rebellion against an unfair system. He's a disenfranchised rebel who's fighting "the man" and giving power back to the people. Maybe your four-year-old won't see it that way, but it's all in how you look at it.

And then there's the story's moral core. Rejected by his own society, Clancy understands why it's important to accept people who are different than you. Therefore his cry at the end that everyone should share the good grass isn't completely out of the blue. On top of that, Helga is the only cow who's ever really accepted him. All the more reason he'd see that the Herefords aren't that different. So let's see... we're looking at a book that discusses a nasty situation between creatures of different groups that fight until they reach a final peace when one group forgives the other rather than wreaking revenge. Best of all, it isn't preachy in the least. If your kids happen to learn something from this, it may be partly because the moral isn't being forcibly shoved down their gullets.

Come to think of it, this wouldn't be a bad book at all to hand to people who are looking for picture books on multi-ethnic families. After all, the last image in the book is of Clanga (a clever mixing of the names Clancy and Helga) in all her many-colored glory alongside the sentence, "Clanga was born on a sunny day, a day of great joy for her parents." With its charming illustrations, easy-going narration, and thoughtful plotting, we can only hope that Lachie Hume feels inclined to keep on bringing us picture books with this level of charm and talent to them. Recommended indeed.

I bought this book on the recommendation of a coworker whose 4-year-old memorized it in one week. Now my nephews, 8 and 10, read it to their new baby brother, and they all love it, particularly the wrestling parts. It has got a nice message about sharing and prejudice, but I don't think that "clogs" the story up - and certainly my nephews don't, either!

Ignore the PRO reviewers that didn't speak highly of this book. The first two customer reviewers got it right. This book is FANTASTIC. I teach elementary school. This is my 19th year of doing so. I shared this book with our school librarian and she made it the first book of the new year that she ordered for our school! Diversity. Humor. Tolerance. It is great! I hope it becomes a CLASSIC along the lines of "The Giving Tree". I am so thankful that I stumbled acrossed it at my public library. My hope is that more libraries add it to their collections. I look forward to reading it to my students this year. And, to my three daughters.

I read it to the 6-year-old I babysit and she loved it! She even wanted to know if there was more stories about Clancy!
The plot and the main characters are great; I loved the illustrations, they show the animals' emotions without much explanation. It is a cute and fun book for people of all ages.

I never read this, but aren't cows generally female? Maybe this is explained in the text.

Not the most amazing book out there, but a good story with some very original wrestling moves. and a good message to boot: don't be racist. Learn to live together and share.

At first blush this little book seems to be a tired exposition on the value of being different and the agenda of diversity; essentially `Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' in a shorter and slightly self aware package required by discriminating, post-modern 2 year olds (or, rather, their X-er parents). Clancy is different and it is the key to his success and eventual social ascension, which he used to teach everyone the value of `just getting along.' But a more careful reading reveals a couple of really important and more subtle themes.

Clancy's social milieu is one of undistributed abundance that is retained disproportionally by a section of the society (the rival herd). This abundance feeds their continued access to it and gives them power to subjugate Clancy and his herd (tribe). This sets up a cycle of poverty in which the overuse of resources by some is justified by an advantage provided by the same overuse of those resources. Clancy's victory (which is facilitated by his uniqueness) is to attain access to those resources (albeit by clandestine means), topple the social structure and then redistribute the abundance. These are actually rich, redemptive and conflicted themes beyond the `can't we all just get along' sentiment, that I am happy to expose my child to.

Finally, there is a page with a series of cows in various wrestling holds given quasi-pun bovine specific names (like `the cud crusher') that is fundamentally entertaining. I saw a group of adults read this page and laugh uproariously.

Oh, excellent book. So cute. My 5-year-old and 2-year-old both loved it. It's a very sweet, gently moral "can't we all just get along" story, with simple illustrations. It would be a bit much for a beginning reader to read on their own, but it's perfect for reading aloud and a good length.

I purchased this for my daughter looking for stories about understanding and accepting differences and Clancy hit the spot. Not preachy, just plain common sense. I love this book!

We love this clever book! Our kids think it's cute, and we think it's hilarious. It covers all the most important topics - tolerance, sharing, and of course, cow wrestling mooooves!