Marjorie the cow wasn't feeling important because she couldn't do what the other cows could - ride bicycles and do handstands, of course. A group of clever chickens, however, decided to help improve Marjorie's self esteem, so they hatched a plan to plant an egg under her one night and let Marjorie believe she laid it herself. Aside from the wildly funny and creative plot, the pictures make viewing this book as much fun as reading it. Using a mixed media approach, the pictures are collages of cutouts, cartoons, and colors. They range from two-page landscape views, to two-pages of panels depicting Marjorie waiting in multiple different hilarious positions for the egg to hatch. The people and animals are slightly abstract with robust bodies and stick legs, adding to the humor of their extreme expressions. The font becomes huge for the two most distinctive lines in the story, when Marjorie exclaims, "I've laid and egg!!" and her 'baby's' first word (you'll have to read to find out!).
Your child will certainly enjoy the humor throughout the story, whether it's Majorie's facial expression when she fist finds the egg, the chicken's tendency to avoid eye contact when the other cows are challenging whether Marjorie really laid the egg, the way Majorie's 'baby's' beak stretches to the size of a horn when it lets out his first word, or just the way the animals are drawn. There are also some excellent lessons that you can discuss with your little one, such as what to do when your self-esteem is low, how kind it was of the chickens to try and help - and what they did right and wrong, feelings of jealously flowing both ways between Marjorie and the other cows, and not believing everything you see.
When I read this book to my four-year-old niece, Emily, she asked the obvious question, "Can cows really lay eggs?" She was eyeing her Eeyore stuffed animals with a funny look. I first explained that Eeyore is a donkey - not a cow - and that cows have calves - they do not lay eggs. She seemed disappointed, and tried again, "Are you sure? Never?" I told her only in story books, which seemed to satisfy her for the time being.
--Audra
