Books like Where's My Cow?
By Terry Pratchett
For families who love a book-within-a-book, this one lets a busy parent's bedtime ritual become the whole story. Wry, affectionate, a little noir, with real warmth underneath the joke.
Swept away from his family tree, a stick creature is fetched by a dog, thrown by a child, turned into a snowman's arm, and nearly burned on a fire before Santa Claus steps in to help him get home for Christmas.
A great-grandson wanders through his grandfather's topiary garden, where hedges shaped like a farmboy, a soldier, and a chickenpox-covered kid retell a whole lifetime one memory at a time.
A grandfather leads his three grandchildren up to the attic, pulls out his old bowler hat and tap shoes, and shows them the vaudeville song-and-dance act he once performed on stage.
A bush grandmother uses magic to make a young possum invisible, but when Hush longs to see herself again, the two possums journey across Australia in search of the food that will bring her back into view.
On a distant planet, a red Smed and a blue Smoo fall in love despite their families' rule that Smeds and Smoos never mix, sending both sides on a journey that tests old prejudices.
A zombie girl who loves to dance enrolls in a ballet class for human girls, but stage fright before her first recital makes her fear her moans and groans will scare everyone away.
A lonely old man sets out to find one pretty cat but can't choose among the millions, billions, and trillions he finds on a hillside — so he brings them all home.
A young donkey finds a magic pebble that grants wishes, but a panicked wish during a scary encounter with a lion turns him into a rock — with no way to wish himself back.
A baby llama, tucked into bed by his mama, starts to worry the moment she heads downstairs — his whimpers building into full-blown hollers until she returns just in time.
A father and his four children set off to catch a bear, crossing grass, a river, mud, a forest, and a snowstorm before a narrow cave forces a sudden, breathless retreat.
A gentle, repeating question moves through the animal world — from kangaroos to lions to dolphins — showing every baby, a joey, a cub, a calf, has a mother who loves it.
A spider sets off on a dangerous journey and is rescued in turn by his six sons — then faces a puzzle: which son deserves the glowing reward he found?
