Reviews for Minnie and Moo and the potato from Planet X
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Cazet's cows are back (Minnie and Moo Meet Frankenswine, 2001, etc.), charming as ever, in an easy reader that is as loopy as ever. Minnie and Moo are soaking in the summer sun when a spaceship plows into the adjacent field. At first they think it might be a new type of tractor, but then the pilot, a one-eyed potato with green bristles whose name is Spud, pops out. Spud tells them the alarming news that he is in the process-after stopping for donuts and then getting lost-of delivering some anti-bump cream to prevent the planets from bumping themselves to bits. Now he needs to repair his spaceship and secure some space fuel. Repairing the rocket is no sweat-Minnie and Moo let Spud cannibalize their farm tractor for parts; they know it has the necessaries because they took the tractor to the Moon on a previous adventure. But the space fuel, that's a tickler, until Minnie has a brainstorm: Could Milk be space fuel? Yes, cries Spud, though it must have high-cream content. Minnie's the cow to deliver just such, which she does, demurely, as a barnyard chorus warbles "Home, Home on the Range." Spud blasts off and all is right in a bump-free solar system. Weird in all the right ways, from the strange little verbal asides to Minnie's mop of blond curls. Another mooover from Cazet. (Easy reader. 4-8)
Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Unlike their previous escapades, in which the hapless bovines misinterpret normal events as abnormal occurrences, this time Minnie and Moo witness something truly strange: a potato delivering for Universal Package Service crashes on their farm. Using coincidence rather than his trademark animal ingenuity, Cazet solves the UPS problem with rocket retrofitting and a generous donation of Minnie?s white space fuel. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
PreS-Gr 3-Things on the farm get exciting when an alien, resembling a one-eyed potato, crash lands his spaceship in front of Minnie and Moo in this beginning reader by Denys Cazet (HarperCollins, 2002). Spud is from Planet X and finds himself in trouble when he stops for donuts instead of completing his important delivery for the Universal Package Service (UPS). With only a half hour left to get the Anti-Bump Cream delivered before the planets begin bumping into each other, it is up to Minnie and Moo to help Spud get on his way. The space fuel needed is milk, and Minnie comes to the rescue. Occasional, subtle sound effects add to the flavor of the story. Narrator Barbara Caruso does a great job of creating a personality for each character through slight changes in tone and accent, while maintaining a pace that conveys the race against time but doesn't rush the story so youngsters can read along. The audio portion includes clear page-turn signals. An excellent addition to collections for beginning readers.-Veronica Schwartz, Des Plaines Public Library, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
PreS-Gr 2-Minnie and Moo are surprised by a one-eyed, package-delivering, potatolike alien named Spud, who crash-lands his UPS ("Universal Package Service") spaceship in their pasture. He needs another ship and five gallons of "space fuel" to deliver a tube of Anti-Bump Cream to prevent planets from bumping into one another-and he has 30 minutes to get the job done. He fixes a tractor to replace his ship, but still needs space fuel. Luckily, that fuel turns out to be a white liquid that tastes good with chocolate-chip cookies that's right, milk. And Minnie, dairy cow that she is, complies. (How a cow can milk herself is anybody's guess.) Spud successfully departs, saves the planets from disaster, and somehow replaces the tractor and leaves a box of donuts by the end of the eighth chapter. (Whew!) The narrative is convoluted to the extreme. Verbal gags are weak; the good one(s) may well be missed by beginning readers. Illustrations are appropriately playful. However, silly stories should still make silly sense, and this one is too muddled to be amusing.-Mary Ann Carcich, Mattituck-Laurel Public Library, Mattituck, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
