MINNIE AND MOO GO DANCING

paper 0-7894-2536-4 In Cazet’s saga of two bovines, Minnie and Moo are enjoying a sunset when sounds of a dance at the farmer’s home drift up to them. Minnie, the sharp one, suggests to Moo, the dim one, that they attend. They rifle through an old trunk in the barn for dresses, deodorant, hair coloring, and a girdle for Minnie. They appear at the dance, are mistaken by the farmer’s wife for her husband’s twin sisters, are introduced to a couple of country boys, and get down to business. The two couples retire to the food table and start eating until Minnie realizes they are snacking on hamburgers—very likely the Holsteins that had gone missing earlier in the evening; “I’m sorry, Madge,” Moo said. “I didn’t know it was you.” They beat a hasty retreat, give the hamburgers a proper burial, and leave readers with much to chew over—for starters, cannibalism and a strip tease—but it’s presented in a winning format, with so much humor and dash, that the proper response is to not take it seriously. (Picture book. 7-10)