Children's Author Has Kids Mooing for More
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| Getting to know Moo-ey. |
It seemed an acceptable answer to the dozens of preschoolers and kindergartners entranced by the story "When The Cows Got Loose" at C.T. Plunkett Elementary School on Thursday.
It was a dozen years ago that a group of bovines fled their field for a really big adventure — and became the basis for Carol Weis' colorful, fantastical, alphabetical, "nearly true" story.
Published in 2006 by Simon & Schuster and illustrated by Ard Hoyt, the story is a rollicking tale of a zebra-riding girl rounding up 26 (alphabetically named) cows who get into all sorts of circuslike adventures.
Weis, with a stuffed Holstein on her hat, spotted apron, red sneakers and two "singing" cow puppets told the story not using the book, but with a slideshow mix of family photos and Photoshopped illustrations, breaking the children's book down into bite-size pieces for the young crowd.
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The Western Mass. author has been visiting libraries from "Northampton to Wellfleet" over the summer. An appearance at the Gabriel Abbott School in Florida was noticed by the Adams Agricultural Commission, which invited Weis to bring her show to Plunkett. The commission also donated two of her books to the school library.
"It's about promoting agriculture," said commission member Elaine Erdeski. "We want to get the kids familiar with farms and cows."
The commission was established several years ago, one of many encouraged by the state to promote and preserve agricultural resources and provide a voice for farmers.
A few children in the first group Weis spoke to had tenuous links to the area's farms — they belonged to grandfathers and grandmothers — and minimal firsthand experience with farm animals.
One little boy trying to explain his interaction with a calf declared, "one sucked my whole hand."
The program ended with a few choruses of "The Cows on the Farm Go ..." led by Weis' hand puppets Susie-Q and Moo-y. Then the reluctant children were herded out (each giving Moo-y a pat goodbye) to make room for the next group.
"We didn't know what to expect. They said she was wonderful," said librarian Judy Bender. "She lived up to the expectations."
