Customer Reviews

Where's My Cow?

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"Where's My Cow?" is a companion book to Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel, "Thud!". Or, rather, it is three books in one. It is the children's book that his grace the Duke of Ankh-Morpork Sir Samuel Vimes, Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, reads without fail every evening to his son, young Sam. And it is the book that Sam Vimes turns the children's story into (after all, why should a city child be read tales about moo-cows and oink-pigs when there are critters like Foul Ole Ron and Coffin' Henry he is much more likely to encounter?). And surrounding these, it is fundamentally a book about Sam Vimes reading a book to his son, a sweet tale of a complex man trying to be a good father. There is enough self-referentiation in this very slender volume to make a post-modern literary critic dizzy and gibber about meta-fiction and meta-meta-fiction. For the Pratchett/Discworld fan, there are a least a few treasures hidden in the illustrations -- such as that portrait of a bearded, black-hatted gentleman on the wall of young Sam's room. And what is that medal worn by Foul Ole Ron? Bugrit!

No, despite being a product of Terry Pratchett's imagination, I didn't 'love' this one, but it worked well on several levels.

As a kid's book: Taking this one up against a tough audience, a remarkably intelligent and precocious 4-yr old girl, it did very well. She was able to follow the idea of a dad reading a book to his child as the theme of the book, and clearly understood that Dad (in the book) was taking liberties with the text. And that Mom caught Dad taking liberties with the book went over very well (the girl involved laughed so hard she nearly threw up). The illustrations were a big hit with the young lady, and she was particularly taken with the pet dragons.

As an addendum to "Thud!", by the same author. It works, but not quite as well. There is a new artist illustrating "Where's My Cow?", and this artist's style doesn't (I feel) work as well for DiscWorld characters. "Where's My Cow" is fairly central to "Thud", so to see the book it self was somewhat rewarding, but a strict rendition of "Where's my Cow" would have been fairly lame. So liberties were taken to make it more appealing to a general audience and for parents to read to children.

As a father reading this book to my kid: It works well. Any parent can see how well DiscWorld holds up the mirror to life in how Sam Vimes plays with his son as he reads this book. Any parent has suffered through the sixtieth reading of a book written on a two year old level, and many of us have succumb to the desire to make those dreadful children's books a little more interesting. Many of us have also been intensely browbeaten by our wives for this. (Informal research indicates that the desire to take liberties with kids' books is a dad thing, hence the gender specific language). To see this as the theme of a kids' book is a hoot. Also, the way this book is written, it invites using different voices for different aspects of the book, a great source of entertainment for the munchkins.

In all, I would only read it once for myself, maybe twice for the illustrations, but don't mind reading it numerous times for the young'un (and the young'un is just fine with this).

I love Pratchett's work. I own all of the books he has written or co-written, but have generally avoided the tie-ins that are largely the work of others. I should have avoided this one too.

The text, what there is of it, is almost entirely lifted from "Thud!" and is a "funny once" for those familiar with Discworld. And if you've read "Thud!" you've read this. But it's the illustrations which ruin this work for me. Pratchett has tended to avoid detailed physical descriptions of his characters, leaving it to the reader's imagination. I therefore found it jolting that the depiction of Sam Vimes, in particular, was so completely unlike my own mental image of him. Paul Kidby's illustrations in "The Last Hero" seemed to fit much better.

If you're buying this book thinking it would be good to read to a young child, think again. It is a book about a children's book, not the book itself. The illustrations are lavish, and it would appear that there's lots of detail to savor, but the depiction of Sam Vimes as looking like Buzz Lightyear really was a turnoff to me.

If you have to own "everything Pratchett", then go ahead and buy this too. It's certainly not bad. But I found it rather unfulfilling. If you haven't already, buy Pratchett's "Once More (With Footnotes)" from Amazon. Now THAT is a worthwhile read!

My husband and I have been Pratchett fans for years, and never thought we'd be able to share a Pratchett book with our two-year old daughter for many more years. Hah! She loves this book. We have to read it twice before she goes to bed, and if we try to substitute something else, she says firmly, "Cow! Cow!"

This is an honest testimonial - give your kids a chance to enjoy this book!

I think some of the reviewers who didn't think this was a good child's book probably didn't actually read it to a child. My granddaughter (4) wanted it read over and over. The picture of the "scary" troll was a perfect chance to explain that not everyone who looks scary is a bad guy, that troll is Sgt. Detritus who is a very good guy. After I told her that, she explained it to her cousin, her father, and one of my dogs.

It is true that there is more going on than what a small child sees. But the child does see a Daddy reading a story to his little boy and loves the pictures and the silliness, and the adult can enjoy Sam Vimes attempt to make the "book within a book" more appropriate for a city boy and can appreciate that none of it matters. That what matters is that Sam Vimes, whose life is so incredibly busy that he seldom gets enought to eat or sleep, comes home every night at six, and reads "Where's My Cow?" to his son.

I LOVED this story! It was cute and endearing and one I could read over and over again. I don't have children; (I read it in the store when I bought "Going Postal") but if I had kids, I would definitely buy this book to read to them. What a great way to introduce kids to the Discworld.

At least that's what my 2 year old said on first seeing the pictures in this charming, if a trifle bizaar, childrens' book.

While much of this can be found in "Thud!", the meta-story makes it for me. And my son doesn't much care as long as I make the noises. And the "city folk", funny as they are to a Pratchett fan, are still funny to my son.

I plan to get this as a Christmas present for a good friend of mine. That's how much I like it; as both a children's book, and as something that makes me laugh as I read it.

I teach Children's Literature on the college level, and I've recently become a Pratchett fan. I'm not sure if very small children would like this book, but I read it to myself, out loud, twice. Giggling madly.

Yes, it's a Discworld book, and it probably helps to have read those. But it's really a parody of children's picture books. Anyone who has had to read *Goodnight Moon* or *Are You My Mommy* over and over and over every single night would probably find this funny; anyone who has read a child's picture book and thought "hey, YEAH, why are all these books about sheep? Little Ralph here has never, ever seen a sheep, and isn't going to."

A word on the illustrations: I enjoyed these. Melvin Grant uses a somewhat realistic technique for the "real" characters--Sam Vimes, the beggars, the trolls, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler. It's more realistic than Paul Kidby's fantasy-style illustration, but it works in contrast to the "baby book" illustrations of *Where's My Cow*, the book within the book, which uses simple outlines and a color palette reminiscent of *Pat the Bunny.*

I'm going to bring this in to my Children's Lit class next quarter.

This book is probably better for those who already are immersed in Discworld rather than an newcomer, as there are many jokes that wouldn't make sense to a newbie. It is a wonderful complement to "Thud!"

And children might like it too.

But only for those two groups, really.