Review: Mischief Cow
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2012
I really enjoy John Carroll's Demented Children stories. My son and I love 'Zachary Zombie and the Lost Boy'. This one was just ok for me though. The Unholy Cow is more of a trouble-making cow rather than evil. However, that is appropriate for a children's story. I did have one rather large issue with the story, though. In the introduction the author warns of various bad things in the story (lying to parents, sneaking out, talking to strangers, being rude, etc.) which are things that an adult can talk with a child about. The issue I had with the story and the warning is that there are two references to drug and alcohol use in the story and there is absolutely NO mention of that as a warning. Yes, the story is for 'demented' children but that still doesn't mean I want my child reading about it like it' ok. So, unless you plan on answering somw questions that might pop up (or, I suppose, you could skip that part altogether, it would be easy to do) you might want to take that into consideration before reading it to a younger child. I read it to my nine year old (we've already had The Drug Talk so I used it as an example of what NOT to do when you're a teenager) and it would have been nice to have a little warning. Especially when the author has already gone out of his way to highlight other bad examples the story shows.