CLANCY THE COURAGEOUS COW

A wonderfully silly take on the idea that physical differences can unify as well as separate. Born without his herdmates’ distinctive white body stripe, Clancy is ostracized by the rest of the Belted Galloways, until he earns acceptance by defeating a Hereford at the annual Cow Wrestling Contest. Magnanimous in victory—and having met Helga, a Hereford similarly shunned for being all brown—he then goes on to become a peacemaker by insisting that the rival herds “pull down the fence and be cows together.” Blunt heads cocked expressively, Hume’s stiff-legged cattle make comical figures in his cartoon illustrations—particularly in a spread showing Clancy practicing such bovine wrestling holds as “The Cud Crusher” and “The Ruminator.” In the final scene, Clancy and Helga fondly regard their offspring Clanga, a calf of decidedly mixed breed. Hume admits at the outset that Clancy is technically a bull, but has been a “cow” ever since a childhood version of the tale. Readers will forgive him the liberty. (Picture book. 6-8)