Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2002 (Vol. 70, No. 8))
Fisher punches up a well-worn plot with vivid language and swirling modernist art that incorporates an equally wild hand-lettered text. After a twister that 'howled like a prom queen steppin' on a cow patty' passes, young Bailey discovers that the farm animals have switched identities: the pig's quacking, the cow's sitting on the nest, the duck is chewing its cud. What to do? The vet shrugs, hypnosis fails, even psychoanalysis (visualize that cow on a couch) doesn't work. Finally, after a flash of inspiration, Bailey leads her mangled menagerie off to a carnival where a ride on (what else?) The Twister spins the animals back to their old selves. But Bailey comes out-curled. 'Uh-oh,' her American Gothic parents mutter. Readers who find Causley's 'Quack,' Said the Billy Goat (1986), or Most's Cow That Went Oink (1990) a trifle sedate won't have that problem with this unrestrained solo debut.. Category: Picture book. Ages 6 to 8. © 2002 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.