It's the farmer's birthday. Minnie plans to leave her gift--a cream puff--under his pillow, but Moo has nothing to offer. A chicken-sheep collision inspires Moo to knit the farmer a sweater--which is lumpy, sneezes, and moans. And where'd chicken Elvis go? The farmer doesn't know what's happening, but observant readers will. Zany illustrations and deadpan text combine for high absurdity.

Since she's on a diet and only going to chow 11 of the dozen cream puffs in the box, Minnie—Cazet's blond-shocked bovine—is going to give one to the farmer because it's his birthday. To surprise him, she is going to hide it under his pillow. Moo—also bovine, but a tad less crazily impetuous than Minnie—is inspired to knit the farmer a sweater after a collision between a flock of sheep and a detachment of chickens carrying Elvis, the imperious rooster, in a sedan chair. The heap of sheep is stuck atop Elvis, and only knitting their wool away will uncover the fowl muckamuck. Working fast, Moo inadvertently, and unknowingly, knits Elvis into the sweater. The lumpy sweater squawks, sneezes, crawls about and even takes brief flight. Clearly, a haunted sweater. Cazet is up to his old but evergreen tricks in this latest Minnie and Moo debacle, fashioning a story of high entertainment value—dwelling in a world of supreme lunacy, yet with an agreeable dryness running through it—to keep a bunch of young noses stuck in the pleasure of a book, inhaling the words. What becomes of Elvis? Well, a rolling pin is involved. There is, after all, a weird bulge in the sweater. (Easy reader. 4-8)

Gr 1-2-Chickens and sheep collide in a tangle of wool and feathers and pull readers into an outlandishly hilarious romp as two unconventional cows prepare a surprise for the farmer's birthday. Minnie is giving the farmer her last cream puff (left, so he can't miss it, in his slipper). Moo decides to knit a sweater, a very special sweater, but washing it reveals that it can both sneeze and talk. While both of them ignore the fact that Elvis the Rooster is missing and conclude that the sweater must be haunted, all attempts to control it and "teaching it a lesson" allow readers to laugh at their ignorance and the resulting calamity for Elvis. Cazet's colorful pen and watercolor cartoons faithfully build on the text. Nonstop action and a clever plot place this title at the top of the list for young readers ready for a slightly more complex story.-Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.