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Cowboy & Octopus

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COWBOY & OCTOPUS
By Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Penguin, 2007. Unpaged. Picture Book.

Tempers are already running high over whether Cowboy and Octopus is Scieska and Smith's best book, or their worst. I come down in favor of the former--from the moment Cowboy and Octopus come to life, cut with blunt-nosed scissors from a Western Heroes paper doll book and the comics section of the newspaper, respectively, randomness prevails. Cowboy and Octopus, happy to meet each other, "shake hands and shake hands and shake hands and shake hands and shake hands and shake hands and shake hands and shake hands." Cowboy invites Octopus over for a bean and bacon supper, which Octopus hates, but pretends to like. Octopus tries to tell Cowboy a knock-knock joke, but Cowboy doesn't "git" it. From start to finish, Cowboy & Octopus celebrates the hilarious and endearing irrationality of childhood as whoever brought these characters into being dresses them in doilies and newspaper cutouts, and takes them into the sunset as friends.

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