Moo Moo, Brown Cow

Moo Moo, Brown Cow

by Jakki Wood
Illustration by Rog Bonner

In this playful picture book, young readers follow a curious kitten into a barnyard, where they are introduced to a host of baby animals and their mothers. As they move from cows to pigs to dogs to geese, children learn about colors and numbers.

Jakki Wood's Moo Moo, Brown Cow is a fun way to start reviewing animals, colors, and numbers with your little one. The book is small in stature with board pages, so your child can hold it and turn the pages together. The pictures are painted with shading, and each two-page spread consists of various shades of usually just one color. Every page follows the same pattern of the kitty asking a new animal if they have any young ones, while the animal answers "Yes Kitty, Yes Kitty" and then how many they have. The repetition creates a steady cadence, while the animals' responses to the kitty teachers the names of different baby animals as well as numbers: one calf, two lambs, three kids, four duckling...all the way to ten rainbow trout fry.

You can point to the animals and colors on each page, repeating them for your child. You can also count the baby animals to begin teaching numbers. After you've read the book together a few times, you can challenge your little one more by asking them to name the animals, color, or number. Adding the appropriate animal sounds to each page will also add a dose of fun to the reading!

I read this book to my friend Sam and he liked to turn the pages himself and point to the animals and had me name them. Once I passed the test, I did the same thing to him, but I started with the colors. We moved on to animal sounds next and were giggling too hard to move on from there. This will definitely be a book we revisit to continue learning new things.

--Audra