A Raging Bull Means Big Trouble for Donald Duck in The Fair Fiasco

Donald Duck certainly has a way of making a mess of things. Sometimes it's his own fault, but sometimes, as in the 1955 Carl Barks picture book Donald Duck: The Fair Fiasco, disaster finds him, and there's not a lot that he can do about it.

The story begins with Donald's nephews informing him that his horoscope indicates that whatever he dreamed the night before will come true. Donald can't remember his dream but hopes it was pleasant, and when he sees an ad for a county fair with an old-fashioned rig contest, he figures that fortune is on the horizon for him.

Sweet but feisty farmer Grandma Duck, a character I only recall encountering in one other Disney book many years ago, has a role to play here, as she is the one who owns the ox cart that Donald takes to the fair, as well as the bull that will pull it. Although Grandma assures Donald that he is docile and has never charged at the color red, the bull begins to display erratic behavior almost as soon as Grandma's house is out of sight. Was this a terrible mistake?

The nice thing about this book is that neither Donald nor his nephews are being obnoxious, which all four have been known to do. Donald is just a guy who'd like a lucky break, and his nephews seem to want him to have one too. Johnny, the bull, is a gentle creature - except when he isn't. Given Grandma's recommendation, Donald is not so much to blame for his wild behavior as he is for the car that he can't control in Donald Duck, TV Star! Still, there's a lesson here about properly preparing for something before diving into it. Then again, this was a last-minute decision, so further preparation would not have been possible.

The book almost has a comic book feel to it, as most pages include boxes set inside the primary pages. Barks also uses dialogue bubbles occasionally with Donald, as well as jumbo-sized onomatopoeia. The varying background colors on each page help add variety and interest in this visually appealing book. Johnny is particularly vivid, especially when he sees something that makes him angry. It becomes a race against time to discover what is triggering Johnny's rages. Can Donald or his nephews figure it out in time, or will the bull be left to cut a path of destruction across the county? The clues are evident, so kids can have fun trying to work out the solution before the characters do.

Donald Duck: The Fair Fiasco is a funny book that paints Donald in an almost entirely sympathetic light. More than half a century old, this classic story still provides laughs.

Maggie Goes Looking for Santa Claus on a Flying Cow

There are plenty of stories about flying reindeer, but in Looking for Santa Claus, a quaint picture book by Henrik Drescher, we spend most of a book with a flying cow. Blossom lives with a little family that consists of a girl named Maggie and her ornery aunts, who treat their niece much like Cinderella. It’s a dreary life, so when Blossom offers an escape via a trip to find Santa Claus, Maggie readily agrees, and an adventure begins.

Looking for Santa Claus is a curious book that calls to mind the old nursery rhyme about the cow jumping over the moon. Blossom, with Maggie on her back, traverses the globe, flying overhead and occasionally pulling off daring rescues. They meet three different men who look like Santa, but they all have different names, hinting at the fact that Santa is known throughout the world, but he sometimes has different characteristics.

One of the most interesting pictures in the book depicts the world at a glance, with different people, animals and landmarks scattered throughout the continents. There are quite a few different pictures, and it’s fun to try to match up each drawing with the country it is supposed to represent. In terms of pure geography, it’s not particularly accurate, but it’s a very engaging illustration that captures the diversity of the world. Generally speaking, I find Drescher’s illustration style to be surrealistic, and while they don’t entirely capture my imagination, the pictures do seem suited to the mysterious nature of the journey.

The book is written in a simple manner, with usually just one sentence per page. The pictures tell most of the story, giving us the personalities of the Russian, Swiss and Egyptian Santas, along with Maggie’s aunts, who undergo an intriguing transition between the beginning and end of the story.

One odd illustration show gifts being tossed down the chimney to land in the fireplace around which several characters are gathered. The fire is lit, so you would think that the presents would be singed at best, and a house fire wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility. Additionally, while the implication is that all the men who Maggie meets on her journey serve a Santa role, all three are present when Santa Claus soars across the sky with his reindeer, which makes it a bit unclear just what role they play. Perhaps the idea is just that they are kind men who are ideally suited to interact with Maggie’s aunts.

Looking for Santa Claus is a strange but rather soothing book that invites readers to imagine what they might find if they went for a ride around the world. While I find most of the story a little less engaging than I would hope, I like the multi-cultural overtones and the emphasis on forgiveness, and I wouldn’t mind taking a ride on a flying cow myself.

Have a Moo-ey Christmas With Santa Cows

I’ve read many books modeled after Clement C. Moore’s classic poem, A Visit From St. Nicholas. One of the strangest is Santa Cows, a story about a family who receives an unexpected visit from an octet of magical bovines. I’m not sure what inspired author Cooper Edens and illustrator Daniel Lane here, though I will concede that eight flying cows bear a slight resemblance to eight flying reindeer, and “Santa Cows” certainly sounds a lot like Santa Claus.

The book follows the basic format of the poem, with 14 four-line stanzas with occasional points of similarity with the original. As with virtually every book of this type, it begins with “‘Twas the night before Christmas”. It’s a rather sad Night Before Christmas if you ask me, with everybody vegging on the couch glued to the TVs; this family has four of them, and the content on every one appears to be violent, with two fiery explosions and one boxing match. The fourth TV is pretty small, so it’s hard to see what’s on, but it looks as though there may be something blowing up there as well, and though all six children are in the living room, none of them are paying any attention to each other, and it appears to have escaped everyone’s notice that the pizza delivery guy has simply made himself at home. All through the living room, not even a hint of Christmas decorations can be seen.

When the family notices the cows, Elwood, the man of the house, is thrilled, since he experienced their arrival long ago in his childhood and always hoped that they would return. I can’t help thinking a bit of Bert in Mary Poppins, patiently awaiting the next visit of a mysterious airborne visitor. The cows’ arrival brings the family together. Soon they are gathered in one place and interacting with each other, and they listen, rapt, as the cows sing O Holy Night and Adeste Fideles. Since the book includes no dialogue from the cows themselves, it’s unclear whether they are singing the words or merely mooing the melodies, but in any event, I can imagine that would be an interesting concert!

I find the choice of songs interesting, as that is the only mention in the book of the religious aspect of the holiday. This strikes me as a pretty secular household, but when the cows begin to sing, the family gives them their full attention. The cows also somehow manage to produce a fully decorated Christmas tree, seemingly out of thin air, and they enter the house by tumbling down the chimney and through the fireplace. They wear festive Santa hats, and they come laden with brightly wrapped gifts that seem likely to encourage further family time. The “warm” and “wise” Santa Cows share “goodness and truth,” and it seems to be a message about getting back to basics, about unplugging a bit from technology and engaging in physical activity with loved ones, about embracing the possibility that materialism isn’t the best way to go.

Edens sprinkles absurd humor throughout the book, including his comparison of two of the cows’ features to those of Liz Taylor’s, and he maintains a consistent meter throughout. Lane’s ink-augmented paintings of the cows are gorgeous, but what strikes me most about his full-page illustrations is the presence of so many brand-name products. We see a Domino’s pizza box (and delivery man), cans of 7-Up and Coke, a bag of Lay’s potato chips, issues of People and TV Guide and a lamp featuring the Starkist Tuna dolphin. My first thought was product placement, and then I decided it was more likely a way of showing the excesses of consumer culture, though the gifts the cows bring also have brand names, albeit of sports teams.

Santa Cows is a pretty strange book, but the exceptionally detailed illustrations are fascinating to study, and there’s a laugh on every page. If you’re tired of reading about Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, try Holstein, Brown Swiss, Jersey and Hereford on for size.

Cow Christmas Books

Cows are popular subjects for children's Christmas books.

Cow Lovers Should Get a Kick Out of Millie in the Snow

There are many animals that are frequently the subjects of Christmas books. Reindeer. Bears. Mice. Less common are stories that focus on cows. While there are several farm-themed books in which cows appear, there are relatively few in which they play a significant part. One of these is Mille in the Snow, a cute book written and illustrated by Alexander Steffensmeier.

Millie, he tells us, is “not an ordinary cow”. As if to confirm this notion, the first two-page spread, in which the woman who owns Millie milks her, shows us that in the barn there hangs a picture of a cow wearing a Superman costume. No, Millie is not moonlighting as a superhero. But she does have a very important job. She is a mail cow.

The mail carrier she works with is a cheerful fellow with glasses, a bit of stubble and a slightly pudgy build. He’s no ordinary mailman either, as he spends all of his free time carefully crafting gifts for the farmer and her many animal friends. We see how much work he’s gone to in a funny two-page spread that shows him at work on a series of presents. On the bottom of the pages, we’re treated to the imagined reactions of the recipients. The farmer’s is especially amusing.

Steffensmeier doesn’t tell us where this book, a sequel to Millie Waits for the Mail, is set. He hails from Germany, so that seems a likely candidate, though I tend to imagine it being someplace in the northernmost reaches of Minnesota. There’s something very midwestern about these endearing characters, and the thick blanket of snow, along with the mailman’s handiness with a pair of skis, suggests an especially cold winter season.

The writing style is enjoyable, with a few sentences per page in a variety of sizes. While there are some two-page spreads, some pages are broken up comic book-style, adding to a sense of panic when crisis hits and helping to move the story along very quickly. The pictures are full of details both funny and sweet. On the tender side, the mailman has a framed picture of him and Millie on the wall, while he daydreams about the impact a sprig of mistletoe might have upon the farmer.

Much of the humor comes from the antics of the many birds throughout the book. There are chickens in scarves and on skis, three-toed stockings hanging on the line in anticipation of Santa and a pile-up of crows on the telephone wire. Then, of course, there is the conclusion, during which the mailman’s gifts are distributed to the wrong recipients, owing to Millie’s ordeal on her way home from her mail rounds, which jumbled up the packages.

With appealing illustrations and a sweet tone, Millie in the Snow is a funny and charming story that is sure to appeal to cow lovers of all ages at Christmastime.

A Considerate Farmer Makes Animals' Dreams Come True in Dream Snow

When it comes to crafting artistic, interactive, creative picture books, Eric Carle is truly a master. Whether it’s the expanding size of the Very Hungry Caterpillar or the long-awaited chirp of the Very Quiet Cricket, his books, while immediately recognizable as his from his unique style incorporating layers of colored paper, always seem to hold a surprise or two.

Carle’s books tend to be short on words, and this is no exception, with a couple of sentences per page the norm. The story concerns an affable farmer with a rotund figure and a bushy white beard. Modeled after Carle’s friend Barry Moser, the man also happens to bear an uncanny resemblance to a certain jolly old elf. Before the story ends, that similarity will come in handy.

The main portion of this book is very repetitious, as it involves the farmer, while asleep, dreaming of snowflakes that “gently covered” someone “with a white blanket.” At first, that someone is him. Then it’s each of his five animals (One, Two, Three, Four and Five). By the time he awakes, the snow is real, and it’s time for him to pull on his winter gear and provide a surprise for his barn-dwelling friends.

Carle first shows these creatures in their barn, with just their backs or bottoms visible through the windows, but this glimpse should be enough to tell readers which animal is which; they should, for instance, be able to tell that the horse is the first animal under that blanket of snow in the farmer’s dream. If they don’t remember that far back or feel like checking, they might try guessing based on the shape of the “blanket”.

The bulk of the story features just that quick succession of three pages several times over. One sentence in italics in the middle of a white page. One full-color illustration featuring a horse, a cow, a sheep, a pig or a chicken. And in between the two, a clear plastic sheet featuring a large white splotch and several smaller, snowflake-sized splotches. There is also a surprise at the end of the book, one that requires batteries. It’s a fun element, though it doesn’t add a great deal to the story, and it also makes less sense than the plastic snow pages.

If you’re a fan of Carle’s style or know a youngster who is, I recommend giving his original Christmas tale a look. I don’t think it will ever quite match the classic status of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but Dream Snow should satisfy those who already appreciate Carle’s work.

Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Has a Bad Attitude

I'm a lifelong fan of folk music, so I'm familiar with a lot of old campfire tunes and legends put to rhyme and passed down through the years. But I don't recall that I ever heard of Mrs. O'Leary's cow, the subject of a book by acclaimed children's poet Mary Ann Hoberman. When I read on the jacket of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow that it had been adapted from a popular song, I sought out the song, and it looks like Hoberman wrote the bulk of the book, using just the opening verse as a jumping-off point.

For those as unfamiliar as I was, Mrs. O'Leary's Cow is the alleged cause of the Great Chicago Fire in the late 1800s that killed more than 100 people and left thousands without homes. The song contends that the cow kicked over a lantern left in the barn, and that's how the trouble all began. There's a hint of malice in the wording, as the cow "winked her eye and said, 'There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!'"

Hoberman matches the cadence of this verse well in the ensuing pages as various members of the community react to the cow's predicament, with the fire department eventually coming to her rescue. There's no indication in the book of where this is taking place; it seems like a rural area with few houses, not the sort of place where a blaze would be likely to devastate thousands. Hoberman's book has nothing to do with the Great Chicago Fire. Instead, the entire focus of the book is rescuing the cow from the predicament of her own making.

Jenny Matheson's bold oil paintings convey the urgency of the situation, with lots of concerned faces peering out from the pages, wondering if a rescue is possible. My favorite illustration shows the ten firemen working together to get the cow off the roof, though it's rather inexplicable how she gets up there in the first place. The book doesn't go into the mechanics of her getting from the floor of the barn to the roof; readers are simply expected to accept that she manages it somehow. But if she can get up to the roof, why can't she just jump out the window to safety?

Throughout the book, printed in bold, black letters, is some variation on "There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!" The book concludes as it began, with the cow winking as she reflects on the "hot time" she's made. In the context of the Great Chicago Fire, this seems very distasteful, but even lifted out of that context entirely, the cow doesn't seem to have any regrets for what has happened. Indeed, there's still the sense that she may have done it intentionally, just because she wanted to be the center of attention. If that was her desire, she got her wish, since the whole community rallies around her, and she winds up tucked into bed inside the O'Leary household, as cozy as a cow could ever be. Never mind that the barn burned down and that, if the firefighters hadn't gotten there as quickly as they did, the house could have gone up in flames as well.

Thus, while Mrs. O'Leary's Cow is a creative riff on an old folk song, it doesn't quite sit right with me. It seems to send the message that if you want people to pay attention to you, you should make some mischief, and this hardly seems like a very positive message to send, especially when the mischief is this dangerous.

Mary and Martha Share in the Miracle of Life in One Winter's Night

There was no room for Jesus in the inn. I know that was a travesty, and yet I've always been so moved by the notion of Him being born in a stable amongst all the livestock. No doubt many births had occurred there before and would again; it always struck me as a warm, friendly sort of place to be born, and much more accessible to visiting shepherds than a lush room indoors. So I always like books that focus on the humble circumstances of Jesus' birth.

One Winter's Night is rather odd as a Nativity story because while the text clearly hints at the divine identity of the baby about to be born and goes so far as to name the man and woman as Joseph and Mary, the setting certainly does not seem to be Bethlehem of two thousand years ago. The watercolor and pastel illustrations by husband-and-wife team Leo and Diane Dillon depict a barn that definitely doesn't look more than a couple centuries old, at most. It could even be a modern farm, though none of the tools scattered about the yard, which is enclosed with a wooden fence, are motorized.

When Mary and Joseph arrive at the farm - which we see in pictures but don't actually witness in the text - there is no sign of an innkeeper, or perhaps a farmer in this case. There's no indication that there was anywhere else they might have stayed, or why they were traveling in the first place if not for the census. This ambiguous modernization of the Holy Family is a bit confusing, though it's interesting to see them in another context. The humans have kind faces with dark skin. They are bundled up against the snow, so we don't get a very clear picture of what they're wearing, though Mary is in the traditional blue and bearded Joseph wears a hat.

Each of the left-hand pictures is half-sized, with room for text on the bottom, and sepia-toned, while the right-hand illustrations are in full color and occupy the whole page. These directly complement the narration, while the smaller paintings indicate what is happening elsewhere, first showing Mary and Joseph's arrival and later a growing crowd of creatures from neighboring land gathering outside the barn to witness this very special event.

The main focus of the book is not on Mary and Joseph but on Martha, a young cow about to give birth for the first time. She wanders into the barn in search of humans to watch over her, and Joseph soon begins to comfort the frightened beast. The paintings of Martha, whose naming as a complement to Mary must have been deliberate, are lovely; I just want to reach right into the scene and scratch her behind the ears. The book extolls the compassion of Mary and Joseph as they welcome her into the stable and take measures to ensure her comfort.

In creating the parallel between Mary and Martha, first-time picture book author John Herman perhaps downplays the divinity of Jesus, particularly when Joseph says, "Well, now, two glorious babies on one winter's night." But as James Herriot demonstrated time and again in his tales of delivering livestock in sub-zero temperatures, every birth is a miracle. To emphasize that fact is to glorify the Creator, and I assume that this was Herman's intention. In that spirit, the beauteous One Winter's Night is a lovely and life-affirming tale.

These Cows Are Driving Everyone Crazy!

When I watched the first season of Smallville, I was able to suspend my disbelief for X-ray eyes, super speed, indestructibility and all of Clark Kent's other unusual attributes. However, there was one complaint I just couldn't help but voice: "Why is this 14-year-old driving?" It all comes, I suppose, of living on a farm on the outskirts of a tiny town where driving the tractor is second nature by the age of ten. Still, as much as that corn-fed plaid wearer may have gone for a pre-teen pleasure cruise or two unhindered, I somehow doubt Pa Kent would have extended the relaxed rules to the bovines who helped provide his livelihood.

Of course, neither does the farmer in Sakes Alive! A Cattle Drive, but those darn cows just up and help themselves to his pick-up anyway after swiping his keys. Presumably this whole book was inspired by the term "cattle drive," which certainly takes on a different meaning here as Molly and Mabel, the mischievous mooers on the run a la Thelma and Louise, tear across the countryside, provoking panic and the repeated refrain of "Sakes alive!"

Having previously read Karma Wilson's Bear Snores On, Bear Stays Up For Christmas and Bear Wants More, I expected a series of breezy, aesthetically pleasing verses, and I was not disappointed. For instance: "They bounced along the bumpy road / at quite a frightful speed. / 'What's that sign say?' Mabel asked. / But cows, of course, can't read." Later, Wilson reminds us that they can't write either. But somehow or another, they can drive - and, just as impressive, fit into the seats in the truck, which I can't imagine would be too accommodating to even the daintiest of dairy cows.

The magnificently silly book owes much to illustrator Karla Firehammer as well. The pictures, which are done in acrylics, have a soft, pastel look to them; I especially like the purple trees and the turquoise truck, which looks like a perfect hippie-mobile when it winds up decorated by a shower of flowers. There is great attention to detail in the illustrations, which are populated with a cast of characters that grows considerably large by the end. The adorable citizens of this town all look a bit like Fisher Price Little People: the overall-clad farmer with a straw hat, the mustache-wearing sheriff in his smart blue uniform, the hopping mad little mayor who could almost pass for the Monopoly Man, the bespectacled dog walker in the green jacket... Even when some of these folks are roused into a nasty temper by the cows' antics, they are entertaining rather than intimidating.

Fanciful and clever, Sakes Alive! A Cattle Drive is such a giggle-fest that I might not recommend it for bedtime reading because it is likely to wind kids up rather than down. But any other time of day, this hilarious book about a pair of cows on the lam will drive youngsters wild with delight.