kiddital

Clover the Cow Who Wanted to Fly

Bea Alvarez

Clover the Cow Who Wanted to Fly

by Bea Alvarez

Ages 6–8 4.7FarmPerseveranceInventing

Everyone on Sunny Acre Farm says cows can't fly. Clover has a plan, a hen with a chalkboard, and a very large pile of hay.

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Age
Ages 6–8
Pages
18

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Clover the Cow Who Wanted to Fly

Bea Alvarez

Once upon a time…

Every morning, Clover the cow stood at the top of Sunny Acre Farm's tallest hill and watched the swallows swoop across the sky. Dip, dive, loop-de-loop, they went, as if the whole sky belonged to them. Clover chewed her clover and stared upward until her neck was sore. "I want to do that," she sighed. "More than anything in the world."

Page 1

"Cows can't fly," said Rooster, without even looking up from his crowing. "Cows can't fly," said the sheep, who were busy with lunch and didn't look up either. Clover swished her tail. "Maybe," she said quietly. "But nobody has ever shown me that they can't, and I can try." Then she tossed her head and trotted off to find help.

Page 2

That afternoon she found Hattie the hen, who lived in a workshop behind the henhouse and knew everything about screws, string and springs. The workshop was full of gears and goggles and half-built inventions. "Hattie," said Clover, standing in the doorway, "will you help me fly?" Hattie looked up from her workbench. A slow, delighted grin spread across her beak.

Page 3

Hattie tipped up her tiny goggles. "Flying is just three things," she said, and she hopped up onto a crate. "Wings to catch the air. A push to get going. And a soft place to land." She wrote the three things on her chalkboard, then underlined the last one twice. "Especially that one," she said. "Never skip the landing."

Page 4

…and then?

Read on

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Story mood

Is it a wind-down book, or a wake-up book?

  • SleepyWide awake
  • SillyGiggle fits
  • BraveBig courage
  • CuriousFull of wonder

Meet the characters

Tap a card to learn a secret.

CloverA cow who won't stop trying
Did you know?She counted her tries on her hooves and ran out of hooves at flight twelve.
HattieFarm engineer, expert in springs
Did you know?She keeps a chalkboard of every mistake, because a mistake is just data.

Talk about it together

Conversation starters for after the last page.

1Tap to reveal
Why did Hattie call the splash data?
2Tap to reveal
Have you ever tried something more than once? What did you change each time?
3Tap to reveal
What would you build if you wanted to fly?

Try this at home

Paper glider lab

Fold three paper planes and change one thing on each: wing size, a tail, or a paper clip for weight. Test them in the hallway and record which flew farthest.

What your child will take away

  • ✓Trying again after a mistake
  • ✓Testing ideas one change at a time
  • ✓Asking friends for help

About the author

Bea Alvarez

Grew up on a sheep farm and still counts sheep, mostly to stay awake.

More by Bea Alvarez →

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