Something to Tell the Grandcows »

Eileen Spinelli is no stranger to the Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers list. Since her debut in 1991 with Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch, an IRA/CBC Children's Choice book and Christopher Award winner, she has gone on to author numerous picture books, poetry collections, and chapter books, including the best-selling When Mama Comes Home Tonight, and the critically acclaimed Sophie's Masterpiece. Eileen lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Hoping to have an adventure to impress her grandcows, Emmadine Cow joins Admiral Richard E. Byrd on his 1933 expedition to the South Pole.

Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz - Children's Literature

There actually were several cows on one of Admiral Byrd's expeditions to the South Pole. That fact has inspired this jolly tale of cow adventure. In 1933, Emmadine the cow, anxious to have something exciting to tell her grandcows, volunteers for the trip. After seasick weeks, she arrives at "the coldest place on earth." Clad in socks, a scarf, and an "udder muff," Emmadine spots seals, petrels, whales, and has an amazing encounter with penguins. Milking time is not quite the same in a place where the sun never goes down in the summer. She then cheers the others through the storms and dark of the endless winter. Finally, homesick, she is happy to return home. Over and over, Emmadine has mused, "Oh, wouldn't the grandcows be amazed!" And of course, they are. Slavin successfully mixes naturalistic settings with the fairy-tale events in double-page textured acrylic paintings that make us shiver with icicle-producing cold and get our feet tapping as the Emmadine leads the cows dancing the "hoochy-coochy." There is even a touch of patriotic sentimentality as she stands on the ship's deck beneath the American flag saying goodbye to a group of penguins and seals, then is greeted by crowds and by the President of the United States. The pages exude good feeling and just plain fun. 2004, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, Ages 4 to 8.