by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 26, 2010

60-year-old Mem Fox had already led an interesting life. She received an order of chivalry from the Queen of Australia, according to Wikipedia, and at the age of 35 made a career change from the world of professional drama to literacy. ("Literacy has become the great focus of my life - it's my passion, my battle and my mission and my exhaustion.") But she grew up on a mission in Zimbabwe, according to the book's jacket, and "spent lots of time among meandering cows." In 2006, she tapped into those memories to write a fun children's story - "A Particular Cow."

"Every Saturday morning a particular cow went for a particular walk..."

My first thought was that she was trying to teach young readers the word "particular," since the cow gets caught up in "a particular pair of bloomers" on one "particular Saturday." Much of the book's beginning is a single sentence which continues over several pages, and the narration follows that same simple pattern. But fortunately, there's some very funny illustrations to depict the details of the plot.

For example, the bloomers get stuck on the cow's head, leading it to trip onto a mailman's cart of letters, and then roll down the hill through a pack of dogs. But the narration simply says that the cow found herself on the wrong side of "a particular pair of bloomers…a particular woman… a particular postman…and three particular dogs." Each new person gets a two-page spread, showing just how spectacularly disastrous this morning became. When the bloomers get stuck on the cows head, it kicks its hind legs in confusion as the woman points and screams - and it's definitely headed for trouble when it ends up on its back, legs in the air, as the mailman's cart starts to roll!

The cow rolls through a wedding - the bloomer's still stuck over its eyes. The bride gets knocked into the ocean, and the cow ends up in a boat. The cow's misadventure is the whole point of the book, and the story eventually ends about where it began - with the cow happily meandering along casually as though nothing had happened!

The illustrations are by Terry Denton, who "loved drawing the lumpy clumsiness of the cow in this story," according to the book's jacket. (So much that "he's convinced that cows must exist primarily to be picture-book characters.") His pictures add a sunny humor to the story, and it's pretty obvious that the author enjoyed working with him. The author dedicates the book to her illustrator, and calls him "a particular hero."

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