Cowlick! by Christin Ditchfield, Rosalind Beardshaw (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

. . . She comes in the middle of the night, when everyone is sleeping. When she sees a smooth little head on a pillow, she can't resist giving it a cow kiss—sluuurrrp! Cowlick! gives young readers an imaginative and playful explanation for the "bedhead" that afflicts us all!


From the Hardcover edition.

Publishers Weekly

Young bedhead sufferers, take heart! Ditchfield's picture-book debut imagines a playful explanation as to how children who go to bed with neat hair wake up with some wild 'dos in the morning. It's all because of a mysterious but kindly bovine nighttime visitor. Some readers may feel uneasy believing that they could be slurped by a cow while they sleep. But many adults—and kids—who've tried to tame the tufts of wild hair known by the titular term will likely find much to chuckle about here. Brief rhyming couplets set the scene as Beardshaw's (Grandma's Surprise) cheery, close-perspective acrylic paintings depict the action. She seems to take particular glee in fashioning the sturdily wavy "once-flat hair now standing tall" on three brothers' heads. The cowlick on an additional (furry) member of the family—shown on the final spread—is not to be missed. Ages 2-5. (Jan.)

Children's Literature

While the family is asleep, they have an unexpected visitor—unexpected to the readers, too, unless they have paid attention to the end papers and spotted the shadow of the late night uninvited guest. A cow creeps up the stairs, sneaks into the boys' bedrooms, and gives them a big cowlick kiss. The illustrations give the cow and family dog very funny personalities and do a great job emphasizing the "Once-flat hair now standing tall." The boys and their mothers are puzzled by the stubborn hair that refuses to lie down despite energetic brushing and combing. Young readers and their parents and teachers will laugh together at the explanation offered for waking with that impossible-to-control morning hair. The illustrations are rich and humorous, and feature particularly expressive faces on the boys, a very mischievous cow, and a perplexed family dog who ends up looking suspiciously like the rest of the family in the morning. Ditchfield's rhyme scheme provides a well-paced story.

Julie RoachCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1
An attention-grabbing, shiny, wet-looking streak splashes across the cover like a big slurp while a cow-shaped shadow skulks across the endpapers. Within this clever package, simple rhymes on bold spreads tell the story of a mysterious cowlick. Finally, there is a reasonable explanation for all of the hair that goes astray in the night: when kids are sleeping, the cowlick cow comes along and plants a big sloppy kiss on their heads. "To the bedside she comes sneaking/Lifting covers, gently peeking/Sees a face so soft and sweet/Framed with hair so smooth and neat…." Appealingly rich and textured paintings on full spreads depict the course of the cowlick night and the morning after, lending the text a perfect fuzzy nighttime quality. The short, lively text makes this fun for sharing aloud with large groups of young children, especially those with heads marked by the cow's kisses.

Kirkus Reviews

Silly business ensues when the moon rises over a rural home, and two young brothers fall asleep. Listen for a "Clip-clop, clip-clop" of approaching hooves. Into the bedroom a rotund and jolly Holstein is sneaking, clearly relishing her job. As the household doggy looks on, the jolly cow lifts the covers and wetly bestows a loving, big, pink-tongued, "Sluuurrpp!," thereby glossing and molding the hair of the slumbering little ones. Now the mystery of those stand-up bed-head hairdos is forever solved! The twinkle-eyed cow moves on as the morning sun rises above her. The robustly colorful paintings, which favor orange and cobalt blue, conjure tender and humorous scenes of snuggly children and the bovine nighttime prankster. Brevity and true whimsy imbue this breezy bedtime rhyme. This is sure to be a sweet beginning to a restful night and will be giggled over and gobbled up; lickety-split-a laptime favorite! (Picture book. 2-5)

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