Hooray, I moved!  Yay me!  Kind of amazing how much work goes into a move.  It’s enough to wonder why we do it…and I’d be tempted to swear I’d never do it again, but life has taught me the futility of such a promise.  Instead, let me say how grateful I am to be on the other side of this particular move!

Perhaps it was the uncertainty of the move coming up.  More likely it was the superb writing.  But, I was surprised at how wrapped up in this little story I was, despite initially stumbling over the unusual narrative style.  I also must warn up front that there are very few curves to the plot–you can quite likely see how the story will go from the beginning.  Yet despite these tripping points, Audrey (cow) is pretty much guaranteed to pull you in and tug your heart stings.

Audrey is a young cow with a flare for poetry and a longing to travel.  Unfortunately, she’s destined to wind up one day as beef on someone’s dinner table.  Anyone finding themselves sitting on the fence over whether to turn vegetarian will have no trouble deciding after reading Audrey’s story, as she’s highly sympathetic and clearly very special.  Once she learns of her doomed fate, she begins to plan and scheme of a way to circumvent that fate, and gets her entire barnyard of friends–and highly unique characters–involved.  Everyone plays a part, and Audrey makes her great escape.

But, what then?  What exactly is life supposed to be like for a cow with no farm?  The second half the book has Audrey making a go of it ‘in the wild’ with the woodland creatures, while the humans search for their missing cow.  While perhaps not including any true plot curves, this time in the forest definitely has some fun and unexpected developments which I won’t spoil for you.  Suffice it to say, if the barnyard animals are unique individuals, the woodland characters take that to the next level and beyond.  And therein lies the greatest strength of this book.  With dozens of characters each providing comments and thoughts from their pov, the narration could easily deteriorate into a jumbled mess.  Instead, the interview-style, hop-skipping narration becomes its great strength.  The author did a truly amazing job of keeping each voice fluid and natural, yet unique.  It’s easy to tell who is speaking, and know what kind of personality they have from their voice.  I plan to file the book away as one I will pull out whenever struggling with character voice, as it’s a small textbook on the subject in fiction form!

But, enough from me.  Let’s see what Apricot-kitty has to say:

“I liked the barnyard animals, but the woodland creatures sound too jumpy.  Also, what is wrong with eating meat?  Isn’t it natural that their be prey and predator?  A story of this kind is all very well, but a cat can not live of off pretty words.”

True, true.  Yet wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could?  I wonder what poetry would taste like…a symphony of flavors, no doubt!  I hope you’re having a Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, and would love to hear what great books you’re reading lately!  For more of the MMGM offerings, stop by Shannon Messengers blog, and have a great day!

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