The Cow in the Dark at Night

Much like the bovine protagonist of this goofily deadpan tale, Hannigan (The Bear Out There) takes a premise and cheerfully runs away with it. A spotted cow makes a carefully planned nighttime escape from its farm home, its innocence about the world and pride in its own sly plan the first of many jokes. Trailed by a black cat who seems equal parts knowing and protective, the cow, with wide-eyed naivety, encounters an array of pale-skinned “night people.” These include a scarecrow (“such a marvelous sense of style”), a pair of burglars hauling off the farmer’s TV (“Everyone seems very polite at night”), and a vampiric “upside-down night person” who invites, “Do you desire to walk as a creature of the dark for all eternity?” But when a green figure whisks cow and cat aboard a spaceship and the adventure leaps from shaggy dog telling to absurd interplanetary outing, even the formerly unflappable cow admits, “It’s looking like I’ve made a pretty big mistake here.” Bold, flat compositions—heavy on saturated greens, oranges, and purples, with a crisp, cut-paper sensibility—match the text’s dry wit beat for beat. It’s an exploratory comedy that’ll draw giggles ’til the cows come home. Ages 4–8. (July)