You Can't Milk a Dancing Cow Book

Poor farmer Picket! Since Mrs. Picket made the cows raincoats and galoshes with her new sewing machine, they won't come into the barn to be milked. Children will love Mrs. Picket's solution for these and other dilemmas Farmer Picket faces when his wife begins creating animal fashion.

Beverley Fahey - Children's Literature

Farmer Picket does not need any new overalls so his wife takes to making new outfits for the farm animals. Cows dance in their new raincoats, chickens parade in bonnets and sunglasses, the rooster's new pajamas are comfy, warm snowsuits allow the pigs to go snowboarding, and the horses would rather hula in their grass skirts than plow a field. With all the prancing and dancing going on, no work is done for a year on the farm. Delighted when the sewing machine finally breaks, Farmer Picket buys his wife a computer. It does not sew but it does give the ingenious woman an idea. Her new animal clothing designs can now be sold to other farms. A catchy title and a humorous cover design are inviting, but it all falls flat between the covers. The cautionary tale spotlights the problems that can occur when animals are clothed and one has to admire Mrs. Picket's clever solution to her broken sewing machine. The story builds to a funny apex but then plunges to a disappointing conclusion. The murky illustrations depict a doleful farmer and his chubby wife to perfection and the animals are truly the stars of this little comedy. It is unfortunate they did not have a text to match. 2005, Tanglewood Press, Ages 5 to 8.