Media Macaroni

Cowboy & Octopus is currently back in storytime rotation, and I never get tired of reading this one.  It’s written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith, the pair that brought us another great one, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.  

Cowboy & Octopus is a series of short stories chronicling the unlikely friendship between a straight-laced octopus and a bumbling cowboy. It was an impulse buy while doing some gift shopping – simply too funny to leave behind. We’ve had the book for a while, and if you simply say the word “lettuce,” Olive laughs.  That’s because of this bit about a knock knock joke Octopus is unsuccessfully telling Cowboy:

“Knock knock,” says Octopus.

Cowboy opens the door. “Nobody there.” 

“No, no,” says Octopus. “You say, ‘Who’s there?’”

“Ain’t nobody there!” says Cowboy.

“I know,” says Octopus. “It’s a joke.”

Cowboy thinks for a second. “Well, dang. It’s not a very funny joke.”

Octopus laughs. “No, Cowboy. The joke comes after you say, ‘Who’s there?’”

“Okay,” says Cowboy. “Who’s there?”

Octopus says, “Lettuce.”

“Lettuce?” says Cowboy. “That’s crazy talk. Lettuce can’t knock on a door.” Cowboy laughs. “That is a great joke, Octopus.”

The story goes on a bit longer and while funny, this excerpt doesn’t fully do the book justice because there isn’t the brilliant illustration beside it. 

Amazon: Cowboy & Octopus, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 1:20 am and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.