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It’s amazing where a dream can take a person, or in this case, a cow. But out to sea? Who ever heard of such a thing? Little Moo, that’s who. In Lisa Wheeler’s latest title, Sailor Moo: Cow at Sea, we follow a courageous and determined young cow as she sets out to become a sailor. The rest of the cows in the pasture are content to stand and graze and chew, but not little Moo. Moo has bigger ideas. She dreams of seeing ocean swells and sniffing ocean smells. So as soon as she is old enough, little Moo leaves the pasture behind and hoofs it to the bay.

Little Moo follows her dream, and she is persistent even when times get tough. She doesn’t back down when Captain Silver Claw shoos her away. Instead, she looks him straight in the eye and offers to be head cook for his ship full of cats (by providing them with milk every day). When Moo can’t understand the cat language spoken on board, she makes friends with the manatees, or cows of the sea, who swim alongside the ship. In a storm, Sailor Moo falls overboard, but thanks to her manatee friends, she is saved and carried to a pirate ship full of cattle. On board, Sailor Moo meets the pirate Red Angus, who instantly falls in love with her and decides to give up the pirate life to marry his dairy queen. Wheeler’s use of rollicking words, whimsical rhymes and a plethora of cow puns make Sailor Moo a joy to read both silently and aloud. And the colorful and witty illustrations by Ponder Goembel are a delight to the eye. Sailor Moo is a story that should be shared with every child, young and old, whether they dream little dreams or big ones. Wheeler reminds us throughout the book that dreams don’t just come true on their own, and they definitely won’t come true if we merely stand, graze and chew through life. Instead, as Wheeler not so subtly portrays, we must take life by the horns.

Best-selling author Jacquelyn Mitchard turns her attention to the fascinating world of mice in Starring Prima! The Mouse of the Ballet Jolie, the punny, funny tale of a precocious mouse blessed with extraordinary balletic skill and a strong desire to dance her way to worldwide fame.

Prima and her many siblings were born in a grand piano that sits backstage at the Ballet Jolie in New York City. And, like her mother (Madame Pianissima) and her grandmother (Madame Mousielle), Prima has a delicacy of step and largesse of leap that quickly separates her from her peers in the mouse ballet. But becoming the prima ballerina of the American Ballet Rodente is not enough for Prima. She wants humans to see her dance! And she wants to dance in Paris, as well! The determined and clever Prima gets herself into varied as she pursues her dreams of fame; her loving parents are at first exasperated and then amused. Even more amusing are Mitchard’s descriptions of the family structure of the mouse world and the activities and pursuits with which the mice fill their days. An encounter with the Nutcracker’s Mouse King is quite memorable, as well.

As in her adult novels (The Deep End of the Ocean, Twelve Times Blessed), Mitchard has created multidimensional characters to whom readers will readily relate. The members of Prima’s family and social circle are presented with care and humor, as are the sympathetic human characters, from Angelo the usher to Prima’s friend Kristen. It is with Kristen that Prima is able to see the world beyond her piano-home. The two learn together about the value of family and the importance of pursuing dreams. Starring Prima!, with its delightful story and whimsical illustrations, will surely leave readers smiling, and perhaps wanting to try a pirouette or two. Linda M. Castellitto is pretty sure her hamster, Geoffrey, knows how to break-dance.

Fashion is something most people read about only in glossy magazines, but in Zat Cat! A Haute Couture Tail, her new title for young readers, Chesley McLaren brings the glamorous life to the masses with high good humor. From the sidewalks to the runway, as fashion goes, so does Zat Cat! McLaren’s entertaining tale follows a stray feline through the streets of Paris. And this cat is like no other. He doesn’t chase mice or dig through garbage looking for leftover tuna. No, not Zat Cat. Instead, he enjoys basking in the sun at the Jardin Luxembourg, a beautiful park fit for a king, or lolling at the Louvre, a magnificent museum bursting with treasures. Ultimately, Zat Cat finds himself in the midst of a Paris haute couture fashion show. He is thrilled to watch the models parading down the catwalk: Such glitter, such style, as they twirl down the aisle. But his excitement and curiosity get him into trouble, for when he sneaks into the dressing room, he destroys all of the dresses for the designer’s grand finale. Luckily, as McLaren shows us, fashion is fickle. The audience loves the tattered dresses. The designer becomes la rage de Paree (the hit of Paris) and Zat Cat is hailed as being Beyond le Frais (priceless). McLaren, who spent several years as a fashion designer in New York City, knows the ins and outs of the fashion industry. She has created mannequins for Pucci, as well as window displays, murals and ad campaigns for Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. Her illustrations have graced the pages of Vogue, The New York Times and Vogue Espana, for whom she covered the Paris haute couture shows. In Zat Cat! her fabulous illustrations bring to life the enchanting world of haute couture. Perhaps the most entertaining element of the book are the faux French (as she calls them) phrases that McLaren sprinkles throughout the story. Printed in a stylish font, these footnotes provide easy pronunciations and fun definitions that give readers a basic understanding of French words. And what’s more, Zat Cat! gives young readers a taste of French culture and haute couture, which unless they open the cover of Vogue they’re unlikely to find elsewhere. Heidi Henneman is a freelance writer who recently moved from the fashion capital of the U.S. (New York City, of course) to the West Coast.