Minnie and Moo Go to the Moon

Staying out till the cows come home takes on a whole new meaning in the first of Cazet's (Never Spit on Your Shoes) spunky new chapter books, especially when it's the cows who are boogying late into the night. Minnie and Moo are best bovine pals living a comfortable life on a placid farm. One night, when the farmer throws a party, Minnie and Moo don dresses and wigs from an old trunk and make a grand, upright entrance at the humans' shindig. The hilarious denouement has the heifers escaping the advances of two burly men and rescuing a plate of hamburgers, which they mistake for the remains of their friends the Holsteins. In the second adventure, Minnie and Moo Go to the Moon, the pair take a clandestine joyride on the farmer's tractor, accelerating so high off the ground they think they've landed on the moon when they finally crash. A scene in which the cows imitate the farmer's method of cursing and kicking the tractor to get it started is laugh-out-loud funny. Cazet's snappy text contains equal parts silliness and true emotion. Minnie and Moo may not be the brightest cows in the barn, but they are loyal, caring and optimistic. The brief chapters and exuberant pencil-and-watercolor artwork on nearly every page encourage beginning readers to moo-ve along at a confidence-building pace--udderly likeable. Ages 6-8. (Sept.)