The Cow in Patrick O’Shanahan’s Kitchen. Diana Prichard, Heather Knopf, ill. 2013. 32 pages. Little Pickle Press. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of Edelweiss]
This is a cute story about how Patrick discovers the origins of the foods he eats on a regular basis. According to the the author, the book seeks to answer the question, “Where does your breakfast come from?” While he helps his father prepare “World Famous French Toast,” Patrick encounters several farm animals in the most unlikely of places — his kitchen.
The story itself is engaging and informative and provides an interesting way to think about where food comes from. I read this with a 5 year old and it was very easy to have a conversation around what’s happening in the book with relation to their own experience with food.
The illustrations look computer generated, which is a departure from most picture books. I liked how they were done done — they’re not rudimentary, but they don’t seem overly done, either. Overall, they’re a nice compliment to the story line from what was included to the color palette. Again, it passed the 5 year old’s test.
My main complaints stem from the formatting issues in the e-book version. It doesn’t lend itself well to landscape viewing, so I had to adjust my Kindle to that. Additionally, depending on the font setting, the text may not align correctly to the pictures. It’s an easy fix, but frustrating nonetheless. Also, there were some typos that looked as if they’d changed the intro of a sentence and didn’t delete it. These are minor things that I expect to be fixed before I would purchase a book.
I would recommend this book if the e-book formatting concerns were addressed and the text proofread for mistakes that might have slipped through. I haven’t seen the hard copy version, so these problems may not exist in the print version.
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