Alice Schertle takes the traditional elements of poetry and incorporates them effectively into poems with nontraditional formats and themes. In addition to rhythmic, rhyming poems, she employs other formats, including free verse and concrete. In �Clever Cows,� the last several words are staggered downhill in single file, just like the cows they describe.
The essence of �cow� is captured in homely similes and metaphors. �The Cow� describes the creatures in the most pedestrian terms: �as common as a box. As square.� This squareness is reinforced by the description of her hooves, which �stand foursquare in the mud.� The cow is also personified, as she interprets human behavior through cow eyes. In �A Cow Looks Down the Highway,� she pities drivers �closed up inside their shiny shells� rushing along, �as if the grass won�t last until tomorrow.�
The author pokes fun at the conventions and confusion of the English language in the poem �Consider Cow,� and �Drivin� the Cows� interprets the idiom in modern day vernacular. A cowboy gasses up his Ford, squeezes Buttercup, Daisy and Blanche into the front and back seats, and drives those cows to Wyomin�.
Amanda Schaffer�s depiction of the cows ranges from heart-warming to hysterical. The mother cow gently nosing her newborn calf is countered by an imposing, spectacle-clad cow conducting spelling lessons to a classroom of calves. Children will love the image of the brown and white cows purveying their goods at a milk stand by the side of the road, dressed in aprons, party hats, and beads. The expressionistic paintings are done in vividly colored oils on canvas, and enhance and enlarge the poems they illustrate.
Publishers Weekly compares How Now, Brown Cow? to �a vaudeville show with nary a weak act.� Alice Schertle surely loves cows, and by the time the last poem in this little collection is read, the reader will have found a soft spot for the gentle creatures, as well. Children, having a natural affinity for animals, will find much to laugh at and ponder in this little book. �The humble cow is revealed in all her physical and philosophical splendor in this varied and charming poetry collection.� (Ingram)
Related Websites
Alice Schertle Webpage: http://www.harperchildrens.com/authorintro/index.asp?authorid=12685
The Cow Car: http://www.cowcar.com/
Cows for Kids: http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/Cows/
Cow Photo Gallery: http://www.farmsanctuary.org/gallery/index_cattle.htm
Cows of Chicago: http://www.sanjose.com/underbelly/unbelly/Pale/cities/chig2.html
Sources
Amazon.com. Available from http://www.amazon.com. Accessed 07 October 2004.
Books in Print [database online]. Available from http://www.booksinprint.com. Accessed 07 October 2004.
School of Library and Information Studies
TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY