SANTA COW STUDIOS
by Cooper Edens & illustrated by Daniel Lane
The Santa Cows (Santa Cows, 1991, etc.) return to give the Schwartz family a tour of Hollywood, playing out spoofs of familiar movies—Star Cows, Cowsablanca, and Jurassic Cows—and ending up in an extended parody: It's an Udderful Life. The book is written in clumsy verse, full of throwaway puns and jokey references. The more carefully organized watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations, featuring bland people and cows in famous scenes from films, are also full of sight gags and visual asides. Throughout, the collaborators are a little too enthusiastic about their own humor; they never stop winking at readers. A good book for those with a cow fetish or fans of the previous titles; not to everyone's taste. (Picture book. 4-8)