Moo Who?

Title: Moo Who?

Author: Margie Palatini

Illustrator: Keith Graves

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publication Date: September18, 2007

Readibility Lexile: Ages 4-8

Children's Picture Book

Target Audience:

Children ages Preschool-1st Grade

Hilda Mae Heifer has lost her moo after getting bonked in the head with a cow pie- she searches the farm in search of what she is and learns she is not a cat, hen, pig or duck and finally finds her identity when she finds her "moo" once again.

High Quality Literature:
This is a great story- it involves multiple characters and has a good plot involving fun animal noises and would start great conversations for finding out who you are in the world.
The characters grow- not only does Hilda have friends who help her discover who she is but also who she is not.  She tries out multiple different skins and finds that as a cow she is the happiest.
The character overcame the problem- not only did Hilda find out who she was she was able to do it in a fun and entertaining way.  It was an easy read with sounds that could be used for a read-aloud.

Literary Elements:
Personification- like it says in our Through the Eyes book this story has great personification.  Hilda has a very relatable personality and great expression brought to life by the illustrations.  She is pictured as a large cow with very distinct red hair and a big nose.  She never appears to be sad when she can't remember who she is but is confused.
Assonance- the whole book is not in rhyme but the characters have some rhyming lines which makes for a nice flow and develops some great vocabulary.  ("Who?" answered Hilda. "Me? Moo?" "Moo, yes, that is what you do." said Duck.)
Metaphors- this book is full of little metaphors and figures of speech which would be great to talk about in the classroom. "Yup. It was lights out for Hilda Mae Heifer."

Illustrations:
The illustrations were very fun in this book.  The illustrator did a fantastic job of using some watercolors and making the characters very vivid and lifelike.  Their emotions are "written on their face" and he does a great job of illustrating what it would look like if Hilda had "webbed feet like a duck" or "chased a ball of yarn like a cat."

Mini-lesson:
I would use this text to talk about rhyming words and prediction.  I would also talk about voice and have the students come up with their own characters who can't find their identity.  It would also be great for a beginning lesson and having them create their own story of what would happen if they lost their identity and what the thing that means most to them would be.