Where's My Cow?

Where's My Cow?
Author	Terry Pratchett
Language	English
Series	Discworld; Illustrated children's book
Subject	picture books Characters Samuel Vimes, Young Sam Locations Ankh-Morpork
Genre	Fantasy
Publisher	Doubleday / HarperCollins
Publication date	2005
Awards	The Ankh-Morpork Librarians' Award
ISBN	0-385-60937-X

Where's My Cow? is a picture book written by Terry Pratchett and illustrated by Melvyn Grant. It is based on a book that features in Pratchett's Discworld novel Thud!, in which Samuel Vimes reads it to his son.

Where's My Cow? was released on 23 September 2005, to coincide with Thud!. The cover bears a gold sticker reading "OOK! The Ankh-Morpork Librarians' Award - Children's Winner". This looks slightly similar to the Carnegie Medal sticker on the paperback of The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

The book is written as a children's picture book and tells the story of Sam Vimes reading the picture book Where's My Cow? to Young Sam. The book describes the search for a cow, in which various animals that are not cows are identified by the noise they make.

Sam eventually decides that this is a daft way to look for a cow, and that Young Sam should, in any case, be getting taught about Ankh-Morpork rather than animals he will only see on a plate. He therefore attempts to rework the story into what he calls the 'Vimes street version', about a search for "daddy" through the city, encountering such characters as Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Foul Ole Ron, and the Patrician.

In Thud! we learn that the next day Young Sam said "Buglit!" (an attempt at Ron's distinctive "Buggrit!") and Sybil pointedly never raised the subject. Sam then stuck rigidly to the authorized version. In the framing story of Where's My Cow?, Young Sam also says "Buglit!" when Sybil comes upstairs to see what all the excitement is.

There are three art styles in the book, all drawn by Melvyn Grant. The first art style is a fairly realistic style, with a slight cartoony feel. This is used for Vimes relating the story to Young Sam. The second style is that of the book within the book, which is simple, with thick lines and pastel colours. The pictures of Vimes and Young Sam are in front of these pictures, and do not interact with them.

The third style occurs when Vimes starts changing the story. The Discworld characters are drawn in the same style as Vimes and Young Sam, but the pastel animals are still present, and all three settings (the world of Where's My Cow?, the streets of Ankh-Morpork, and Young Sam's nursery) begin blurring together. The objects in Young Sam's nursery also become animated. This quite possibly represents Young Sam's imagination.

The illustration of the nursery contains as an Easter egg a painting of the author himself, Terry Pratchett. Also of note is that the various other animals, which are mistaken for cows, are drawn in such a way that their outlines, combined with their surroundings, forms a cow shape. For example, the sheep has a tree's branches for horns and a rabbit chewing greenery for an udder, the horse has a pitchfork for horns and a chicken for an udder, etc.

In this book Vimes bears a passing resemblance to actor Pete Postlethwaite. Pratchett has previously commented that this is who he has always perceived Vimes as looking like, rather than Paul Kidby's 'Clint Eastwood' representation.^[1]

The book has played a cameo at the end of Wintersmith, being read by the character Rob Anybody.

References

^ The Art of Discworld, Terry Pratchett & Paul Kidby, ISBN 0-575-07511-2

v t e Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Novels	The Colour of Magic The Light Fantastic Equal Rites Mort Sourcery Wyrd Sisters Pyramids Guards! Guards! Eric Moving Pictures Reaper Man Witches Abroad Small Gods Lords and Ladies Men at Arms Soul Music Interesting Times Maskerade Feet of Clay Hogfather Jingo The Last Continent Carpe Jugulum The Fifth Elephant The Truth Thief of Time The Last Hero The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Night Watch The Wee Free Men Monstrous Regiment A Hat Full of Sky Going Postal Thud! Wintersmith Making Money Unseen Academicals I Shall Wear Midnight Snuff Raising Steam The Shepherd's Crown
Short stories	"Troll Bridge" "Theatre of Cruelty" "The Sea and Little Fishes" "Death and What Comes Next" "A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices" A Blink of the Screen
Other books	The Discworld Companion The Science of Discworld The Science of Discworld II: The Globe The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day The Pratchett Portfolio The Art of Discworld The Unseen University Challenge The Wyrdest Link The Streets of Ankh-Morpork The Discworld Mapp A Tourist Guide to Lancre Death's Domain Nanny Ogg's Cookbook The Discworld Almanak Where's My Cow? The Unseen University Cut Out Book The Discworld Diaries Once More* with Footnotes The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld The Folklore of Discworld The World of Poo Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being a Witch
Games	The Colour of Magic Discworld MUD Discworld Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? GURPS Discworld Discworld Noir Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
Films and TV series	Soul Music Wyrd Sisters Hogfather The Colour of Magic Going Postal The Watch The Amazing Maurice
Characters	Tiffany Aching Death Hex Moist von Lipwig Nanny Ogg Rincewind Susan Sto Helit Lord Vetinari Sam Vimes Granny Weatherwax
Races and creatures	Dwarfs Nac Mac Feegle
Locations	Discworld Ankh-Morpork
Organisations	City Watch Unseen University The Witches
Other	Boots theory Games of the Discworld Lie-to-children

References

Further reading