Moo: A Novel

Am I supposed to feel bad about Mrs. Falala? Cuz I don't.
It bothers me when parents believe the lies of complete strangers they just met over their own flesh and blood children they have known and raised all their lives. Why do parents have so little faith in their children?
Mrs. Falala was an awful old lady.

Sharon Creech’s Moo is a tale of two cows–Zora and her sidekick Yolanda…and a pig named Paulie, a parrot named Crockett, a cat named China, and a snake named Edna. It is NOT set on a farm–as you might assume. Instead, the setting moves from the big city TO a house with lots of animals in Maine. It is at Mrs. Falala’s house on Twitch Street that protagonist Reena turns inside out–from an inside girl in her city apartment to an outside girl, a cowgirl, as she and her brother Luke prepare to show Zora at the fair as a favor for Mrs. Falala. “Zora eez not alone. I am here. Paulie the pig eez here. So eez Cat, so eez Parrot, so eez Edna Snake…But there are no other cows. No one for her to lean against. No one for her to talk to. Mrs. Falala said nothing. She turned around and walked back to the house that long white braid swinging slowly left to right right to left.” Her braid, a metronome of loneliness. A symbol of isolation even when surrounded by other. A metaphor that we all need a kindred spirit animal to “lean against.” In addition to caring for her mangy melange, Mrs. Falala plays the flute and “When the room fills up with music and has nowhere else to go it floats out the window…that room up there is a remembering room and she is up there remembering all those things fill up the room and when the room is too full they fly out the window.” But the day after the fair, the music stops. “For the first time in a long while, she had stopped worrying about what would happen to the animals if she died. She must have been looking for just the right family and–along you came.” Sometimes we are the answer to someone else’s “moo” (aka prayer!). While Reena is developing her showmanship, she “learned about Zora’s lineage. She did indeed come from a long line of champions and maybe one day…she will receive a blue ribbon or become a Grand Champion but right now I have a lot more to learn.” We, too, come from a long line of biological and spiritual champions–both of which can be traced in our family Bible. The biological champions on the births and deaths family record at the front, the spiritual champions in Hebrews 11 towards the back. Although we can and should be proud of our earthly heritage, it is the spiritual inheritance from our heavenly heroes that has an eternal impact. Sharon Creech’s Moo deserves a cow-caphany of applause!

The title and cover drew me in (guess I'm an official Nebraskan now!) but it was just a plain children's book with a bit of a nonsensical sad ending.