Milly Cow Gives Milk

The various lockdowns of the last twelve months have provided more opportunity for children to get outdoors and connect with the countryside near where they live. This well-conceived picture book is a good way for a child to discover the link between the creatures they see grazing in the field and the milk that they drink at home.

Told through the eyes of a child, we follow the day of a dairy cow called Milly from time spent outdoors feeding on the lush grass, to the twice daily trips to the milking parlour where she gives up to sixty pints of milk each day.  In the final spreads of the story, the child is shown taking a milk carton from the supermarket and then enjoying drinking a glass of this nutritious food with the reflection that ‘Making milk is hard. I mustn’t waste a single drop!’

An attractive additional feature is the inclusion of a trail-type quiz to match words and pictures which is based on the facts revealed within the story. There are two further information pages enticingly labelled Funny Cows and Marvellous Milk. The latter explains more about the ways in which milk is good for you and is the source of other dairy products, such as ice cream and cheese.

Bright, clean, papercut illustrations create some striking spreads and Milly is a particularly appealing, long- lashed, dairy cow. A harmonious, warm interaction between human and animal is a further satisfying feature to be gleaned from the illustrations, where both are depicted as being content in each other’s company. The text is fact-filled but never dull. Little ones will enjoy the pooh of the cowpats and the rhythmic pace as Milly chews… and chews… and chews.

This title is endorsed by The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers and is the first in a four- part Follow My Food series which aims to begin to educate children about the source of various foods and the environment from which they come.