It follows four animal friends (a bull, a cow, a burro, and a little raven) on a journey to freedom. A herd is about to be taken to cooking school to learn how to make hamburgers. Yet Lova-Bull, a small but powerful dark-red Hereford bull, and Mud Pie, a black Angus cow, decide to hide under a tree. They heard from Gracie the Burro that the herd wasn't going to cooking school to learn how to make hamburgers but that the hamburgers would be made out of them! Thus, Mud Pie and Lova-Bull, with the help of Gracie, want to escape to the Cow Retirement Ranch, where there's no gate, no fences, just happy cattle. But on their way to freedom, they must survive a big storm, a four-wheeled, two-eyed monster, and a mountain lion.

The Great Animal Escape is a funny, captivating story filled with heart-pounding adventure. Linda Harkey inspires young readers to find their courage, overcome obstacles, and help others. Readers will get a glimpse into what good friendship and teamwork look like and where courage, unity, and never giving up can lead them. The illustrator has done an excellent job of capturing the story's atmosphere. It is perfect for young adventurers ages 8 to 12 who like adventure, brave animal heroes, and lovely illustrations. This tale will win the hearts and minds of all who read it. The reading guide at the end of the book, containing questions and activities to accompany the story, is a thoughtful and great addition.

The Great Animal Escape by Linda Harkey is one of those adorable little reminders that books don't have to be overly serious or have big, grand, awe-inspiring messages to be entertaining and enjoyable. They can just be simple, short, sweet, and... FUN!

We had such a great time reading The Great Animal Escape because of the adorable, goofy animal characters and the self-aware humor. We shared a lot of smiles, chuckles, and laughs, perhaps more than we've had in a while.

This book stars an ensemble cast of animal characters including:

✼ Lova-Bull & Mud Pie, a cute cow couple who escape a trip to “Cowlick Cooking School”-- what's implied to be a slaughter house, though it's never explicitly shown or stated

✼ Bernie, a blue baby raven who is both adventurous and clumsy

✼ Blue Moon, a rumor-spreading and scatterbrained, sombrero-wearing Chihuahuan raven from Mexico who keeps migrating back and forth, presumably because she keeps forgetting where she made her nest

✼ Gracie, a wild donkey, often referred to as a “burro.” Gracie was probably our favorite character. She was so helpful and useful throughout the book, especially in dealing with Huntress. What's more is that she really doesn't have much of an incentive to help the others beside just being a great person and wanting some adventure. 

What's great about this book is that, despite its short length, every single character has a moment to shine, either to accomplish something on their own or contribute toward the common goal of helping the cows to escape. A lot of them also have humorous moments like when Bernie trips and falls on the worm and into cow poop.

Bernie has a few moments like that, likely due to the fact that Bernie is so young and uncoordinated.

Even moments that would otherwise be tense or scary like a thunder storm, a large truck heading their way, and a mountain lion attack are mellowed out by the humor. For example, rather than running for cover and being scared of the wind, rain, lightning, and thunder, the animals seems to embrace it and celebrate the coolness of experiencing something knew. They even seem jovial about it! There's a whole page of the animals celebrating, jumping, and dancing together after one of the lightning bolts sets a tree on fire. It's hilarious! It reminds us of the meme of the little girl smiling in front of the house fire. It's comedy gold!

It's especially hilarious considering that the animals are supposed to be undertaking the serious task of not becoming tomorrow's breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner, however, they are easily sidetracked and distracted like little kids. We actually loved that! It really diffused the tension and made it fun and enjoyable, especially for kids. Also, in the middle of all of this—fleeing from death and danger—the cows still remind each other that they need to eat 20 pounds of grass per day and take a “cow nap.”

It's so unserious and awesome!

Now, there likely exists a portion of readers who would find this a bit disjointed and random, but we didn't mind it too much. We get distracted just like the animals do sometimes! That's just human nature and how the world works. It's almost never a straight line from point A to point B.

There's also a scene in which a giant truck is heading toward the animals, threatening to turn them into roadkill. However, Lova-Bull, being brave, courageous, big, strong, and a bit silly, decides to charge right at it instead of running away! The driver of the truck reacts the same way a lot of us would respond to a wild animal charging at our vehicle, indicating that their intentions weren't necessarily malicious.

Something that becomes apparent in this scene is that the language is dictated by the way the animals understand and describe the world around them. For example, the truck isn't called a “vehicle” but rather a “four-wheeled, two-eyed monster.” Barbed wire is likewise called “spiky wire” because that's pretty much what the animals interpret it as being.

Now, there are a few villains/antagonists in this book who add a little spice and flavor to it. There are the “Two Legged People” (presumably farmers, cowboys, and ranchers) who seem to want to process the cows for meat. There's also Huntress, a mama mountain lion who stalks and ambushes our brave animal heroes in an attempt to eat them and provide them as food for her starving children. What's strange is that she's humanized quite a bit. Even though she's trying to kill/eat the other characters, the back-and-forth banter and humor really makes you think that there's not much to worry about. For instance, while they're fighting, Gracie basically starts a “hey, do I know you from somewhere?” conversation with the predator. Also, while they're still fighting, Bernie has a surprisingly cordial and friendly conversation with the mama mountain lion's cubs who basically explain that Huntress is trying to teach them how to hunt and is trying to provide food for them.

So, while this scene provides a lot of action and some tension, it's also a lot of fun.

And that's what this book is: FUN!