When their parents leave, Arthur and Lance start sword fighting around the house. The house becomes an utter disaster. When their mom comes back they are in trouble. Later, when the house is clean, the boys leave and go outside. They find two sticks and find two cattle and try to have a sword fight on top of the cattle. Instead of sword fighting, one of the cows eats the daffodils that their mom is growing in hopes of winning a contest. They quickly go and plant new ones. When their mom comes back, the judges are out looking at the daffodils. Instead of winning the grand prize, she got a one month supply of fertilizer and immediately put her boys to work fixing her flowers. Having a brother, this really spoke to me. Growing up we fought all the time, sometimes we would break stuff. Learning from those incidents and moving on like this book teaching is a great schooling lesson. Good for brothers who love each other, but can’t seem to agree on much.

Young Reader Reaction: Our daughter laughed with anticipation at every page. There were plenty of "Uh-ohs" and giggles with two boys riding cows. When she decided we weren't reading fast enough, she took over reading herself.

Adult Reader Reaction: Every parent can relate to this story! It is fun, has just enough humor, and also a good lesson. We were asked "yeah, mom, what is the point?" several times, so be prepared to answer that question.

Pros: What happens when cows, jousting boys, and daffodils collide? A wholesome, humorous story for developing readers.

To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®.

Gosh, this such an awful book. The two boys in it completely disobey their mother on everything. They show no respect for her, or their property. The dad pretty much isn't present, nor is he supportive of his wife's dreams to win a prize for her daffodils. She leaves her young children at home by themselves while she goes and gets a hair cut and then is surprised when she gets back and they've destroyed the living room with sword fighting. They show no brains whatsoever - using cows to joust?! And the kicker is that with all they do wrong, the only punishment they receive is having to shovel fertilizer. Huh? Making kids shovel poisonous fertilizer is an appropriate punishment?

The only redeeming factor for this book is that it is sure to introduce level 2 readers to some good words that they may not have come across previously. But that is only enough to bump it up from 1 star to 1.5 stars. I wouldn't recommend giving this reader to your kids to actually read, or if you do, you need to sit down and discuss all of the other issues inherent in it with them. ( )