Children's Literature Podcast Review: 'The Cow Tripped Over the Moon'

This assignment presents a podcast analyzing the children's book, "The Cow Tripped Over the Moon." The podcast delves into several key aspects, including the book's design, focusing on the illustrations and overall presentation crafted by Laura Wood, and its literary merit, exploring the plot, context, and themes of perseverance and friendship. It highlights the book's origins, dedicated to the author's son, and its educational value for young readers. The review also incorporates insights from reviews, emphasizing the book's suitability for preschool and caregiving contexts, its potential benefits for children, parents, and teachers, and its adaptability for various formats. The podcast aims to provide a critical rationale for the book's inclusion in a school library by analyzing its strengths and weaknesses in terms of textual features and considering existing responses to the text.

Running head: PODCAST
Podcast
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1PODACST
Podcast
The Cow tripped over the Moon is one of the best-selling literature in Australia. The
reason becomes clear once we take a look at the book and read it. There are many aspects that
has made the book successful. Let’s address each one of them one by one:
Design
For children literature the cover and internal design of the book is integral to make it a
success. The design has been done by the famous Laura Wood. The way she has designed the
characters are spectacular. They are funny, catchy and stylish. The whole presentation of the
book is colorful and the text in the pages are well distributed. Abundance of illustrations
makes it appealing to the children that it is intended for.
Literature and plot
Now, let’s talk about the most important aspect of any book, the literature and its plot
and context. The poem has its context in an age old rhyme. The author here, has taken the
outline and enhanced it to a story that is both inspirational and educational. The trial and error
method followed by the Cow, projects the importance of perseverance and patience. The
author, John Wilson has dedicated the book to his 4 year old son, who is suffering from
cerebral Palsy. The struggle that he goes through every day has given him the inspiration to
write the text. The book also will teach the toddlers the importance of friendship and how a
little support and inspiration from our friends and close ones can lead us to new heights of
success. A seemingly impossible feat of jumping over the moon was achieved finally with the
help of the Cow’s friends. It will give the children the courage to dream and hope. The plot is
simple yet engaging, funny yet educational, thus making it a perfect piece for children read.

2PODACST
Reviews
The book has been widely reviewed and accredited by many preschool and caregiving
persons. Parents too have recognized the beauty of the book. As a potential text for children
in a library, these are important aspects. From every perspective it seems that this book is a
perfect inclusion for the toddler age group. It will keep them engaged. They will be drawn
towards books because of its illustrations.
Benefits and recommendation
Children literature is generally written to benefit the child. This book has all the
aspects that will benefit the child as well as the parents and teachers. Apart from the child
learning about perseverance and hard work, the parents too will understand that a child needs
care and constant support for him to achieve anything. The teachers, too, will have the same
lesson from the text. A video of Wilson reading the text to his son is available on YouTube. It
gives a very interesting perspective of how the story should be read. Enacting the characters
and their actions will help the children to have better understanding of the story.
This book is also suitable to be made into a hearing or visual book. The children that
are prone to hear a story than read or those with some disability will be able to enjoy the story
and retain the same inspiration as the others.

3PODACST
References
Almerico, G. M. (2014). Building Character through Literacy with Children's
Literature. Research in Higher Education Journal, 26.
Brosseuk, D. (2018). Growing the entrepreneurial experience of a young learner through
failure. Educating Young Children: Learning and Teaching in the Early Childhood
Years, 24(2), 32.
Marantz, S. S., & Marantz, K. A. (2014). The art of children's picture books: A selective
reference guide. Routledge.
Wilson, T. (2017). Tony Wilson reads The Cow Tripped Over the Moon.
Wolf, S. A. (2014). Interpreting literature with children. Routledge.