Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Mrs. Wow does not want to keep the cow that has shown up on her lawn, but her cat and dog think they can get it to do their chores. The cow does help out, but in a much different way than they had imagined. Bright colors and wacky illustrations enliven this tale of ""lazy, crazy pets."" (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

K-Gr 2-In this funny beginning reader, Mrs. Wow is mowing her lawn when she discovers a cow on it. Although she shoos it away, the animal will not leave. The woman's lazy dog and cat convince her to keep the animal and then attempt to train it to do their jobs, but the newcomer is a disaster at catching mice and guarding the house. Mrs. Wow finally finds two things that it can do-eat grass and give milk (which is later made into ice cream). The story ends happily with the cow mowing and the cat and dog doing "anything" for ice cream. The mostly one-syllable words with regular phonetic patterns are spare and natural, and Salerno's brightly colored cartoon illustrations amplify the text's humor.-Bobbee Pennington, Bryan Public Library, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This reader in the longstanding Beginner Books series marries trendily retro pictures and an amusing text. While mowing her lawn, apparent singleton Mrs. Wow encounters a grazing cow. Her cat, Meow, and dog, Bow-Wow, who prefer sleeping and eating to their chores, try to get the cow to catch mice and guard the house, with predictable results. "This cow is useless!" they cry. When Mrs. Wow explains to her "lazy crazy pets" that cows "can only do two things"—eat grass and give milk—she gets a brainstorm. And though she acquires two new chores herself (milking and hand-cranking ice cream), it's a fair exchange for an end to mowing, and a dog and cat thrilled to work for ice cream. Freeman misses a few chances for the textual symmetry so important to the format, but repeating phrases and a pleasant use of incidental rhyme fit the bill. Salerno's pictures channel erstwhile greats in the publisher's series—notably Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman—by way of Nickelodeon cartoons, and purple Bow-Wow owes a little something to Margaret Bloy Graham's Harry. Bright, painterly swathes of color add dynamism of their own, and bold black outline simplifies compositions appropriately for a beginning reader. A romp. (Easy reader. 4-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.