The Wooden Cow is part three of the growing Storymaze series by Terry Denton that uses classical mythology as a basis for timeless storytelling.

Denton has created a modern spin on the age-old story of the Trojan horse.  He uses his quick wit and quirky sense of humor to create a story that is told both as a comic strip and through a narrator who introduces the story and occasionally tries to instruct the 'heroes' on which path to choose. However, you must see whether or not they listen to his advice!

Mikey, Nicko and Claudia on their way to a Surfing competition on the planet of Freisa. In order to get there from their planet Ithaca, they use a time travel device called MIT, a cheeky object that even has its own dialogue. There is a guide to MIT's (sometimes rude!) digital language and a map of the universe for reference at the end of the book adding to the crazy humour.  Instead of delivering Mickey, Nicko and Claudia to present-day Fresia, MIT drops them about 4000 years too early for the competition. Claudia arrives behind the city walls surrounded by cow soldiers and the boys, Nicko and Mikey on the other, leaving it up to the boys to save her, causing all kinds of problems.

Ulysses appears and enlists the help of the boys as he too needs to enter the walls of the city in order to win the heart of the Queen of Fresia.  Eventually the boys discover a wooden horse in the water nearby and try to use it to gain entry into the city. This backfires and they are thrown back into the water as a sacrifice to the Gods! So they try a wooden cow and this too backfires and they need to take another course of action.  

Denton uses the widespread appeal of this historical / traditional tale to provide his readers with a truly entertaining book. The comic strips add to the mad humor that he delivers constantly throughout the events of the story. Although this is part three of the series, the only connections made are with the fourth part of the series, The Golden Udder, by providing some background information to it.

Terry Denton has written and illustrated many children's books and it's easy to see why he was shortlisted earlier in the year for his picture book, Passing On. As with his other stories, Denton delights with his new series: Story maze.

I would strongly recommend this series for children aged 9 to 14 years of age.

Other books by this author:
Billy the Baked Bean Kid (Lothian, 2002)

Review by Annemarie Holmyard

© 2003 Annemarie Holmyard