Cappuccina is a cow with a wandering eye. Watching people drive by her field on their way to town, she longs to sample freedom and seizes the chance when a storm knocks a hole in the farmyard fence. Having ventured into the town’s marketplace, she tries on shoes, hats, dresses, and wigs (all in her favourite colour, which is “bloooo”) but nothing fits. Finally, an insightful hairdresser guides her to a solution. When he ties a blue ribbon around her tail and sends her back out into the world a happy cow, a clear theme of self-acceptance emerges.

This is the first picture book by Mary Ann Smith, who lives on Bowen Island in B.C., and her daughter, Katie Smith Milway, who is based in Massachusetts. Their collaboration has produced a lively and well-crafted narrative. The variety of sentence lengths creates a pleasing rhythm, and the tone of the dialogue suits the old-fashioned gentility of the town and its people.

Illustrator Eugenie Fernandes has rendered the scenes in warm-toned gouache with decorative borders. She has added a few subtle interpretive touches, for instance where Cappuccina’s tail overlaps the border, reinforcing the impression of a cow that cannot be contained. She has also added (as she always does) a mystery pet not mentioned in the text: here, a marmalade cat. With its lighthearted pictures and narrative, this book’s reminder to enjoy the grass on one’s own side of the fence is easy to digest.