ARE YOU A COW? [STARRED REVIEW!] Author: Boynton, Sandra Illustrator: Boynton, Sandra Review Issue Date: July 1, 2012 Online Publish Date: June 13, 2012 Publisher:Little Simon/Simon & Schuster Pages: 16 Price ( Hardcover ): $5.99 Publication Date: May 1, 2012 ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-1-4424-1733-5 Category: Picture Books Classification: Board Books A bossy chicken demands that listeners introduce themselves. A question-and-answer format challenges the toddling audience to identify with various animals. The energetic interrogation opposes questions in conventionally sized type and answers in a teeny-tiny font. “Are you a cow?” “No.” The pattern breaks when hippos lumber into view. “You are not a HIPPO. / You are small. They are big.” A perpetually grinning bear and upside-down chicken prompt negative reactions, and then a penguin appears. “Are you a penguin? You''re not? But wait! / You must be YOU! Now isn''t that great!” This exuberant call-and-response and mostly repetitive format keep the pages turning with brio. The wacky characters dominate each page with puzzled, endearing expressions, and cross-eyed stares add a further dollop of humor. Boynton has perfected the art of creating developmentally appropriate books for babies that keep their parents engaged too, and this is no exception. Tots will be thrilled at the chance to use one of their favorite two-letter words (“no!”) over and over again. (Board book. 1

Sandra Boynton was born in Orange, New Jersey, and grew up in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Boynton's parents became Quakers when she was two years old. From kindergarten through 12th grade, she and her sisters attended Germantown Friends School, where their father taught English and was Head of the Upper School. She went on to Yale, entering in 1970 for her second year of college. She spent the second semester of her junior year studying in Paris through Wesleyan University's program. At Yale, she majored in English. Boynton intended to become a theater director. For graduate studies in drama, she attended the University of California at Berkeley for one year, then transferred to the Yale School of Drama D.F.A. program, but she did not complete the program. With the birth of her first child in 1979, Boynton postponed indefinitely a career in the theater. Boynton began designing greeting cards for Recycled Paper Greetings. Her designs were at the forefront of the Alternative Cards commercial movement that began in the mid-1970s. According to RPG co-founder and president Mike Keiser, over 200 million copies of Boynton's distinctive humorous cards featuring an assortment of unnamed cartoon animal characters, spare layout, and droll messages sold between 1973 and 1995. Since the 1977 release of Hippos Go Berserk!, Boynton has published many children's books, as well as several illustrated humor books for the general market. Her books are most typically fo