Moo, moo, Brown Cow,
have you any milk?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
smooth as silk.
Will milk make me sleepy
before I go to bed?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
the brown cow said.

     "In a story that's part lullaby, part concept book, with its gentle emphasis on colors, animals, and their sounds, Gershator riffs on "Baa Baa Black Sheep" to explore a farm boy's day....Each quatrain introducing a new animal is followed by another that explains what the creature provides: 'Does sun-sweet honey make a tasty spread?'/ ‘Yes, sir, yes, sir,' the yellow bee said.' Potter's characteristically naïf illustrations play up the whimsy of the interactions; the bee, for instance, uses a honey dipper to provide the aforementioned 'tasty spread,' and the boy sits on a sweeping expanse of wool that the sheep knits while sitting in an armchair. The progression of events (yielding a blanket, pillow, and snack) naturally leads to bedtime, and a final scene, in which the animals appear as stuffed toys in the boy's bed (or, in the case of the bees, a mobile), leaves readers to ponder just how much of the day's adventures might have been imagined." Publishers Weekly

      "...Gershator uses rhyme and the melodic rhythm of “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” in her dialogue, making the tale fit for either singing or speaking. Potter uses soft colors for day and rich cobalt and chocolate for night in her folksy paintings. She features only essential background details, complementing the text for this soothing book." School Library Journal

     "Borrowing a soothing cadence as well as the first two lines from a certain familiar nursery rhyme,
 Gershator expands the original into a short but effectively soporific bedtime ritual. In her customary 
primitivist style and muted colors, Potter depicts a moon-faced rural lad with faraway eyes questioning a
 sheep...; then, in
 similar fashion, a goose, a hen, bees, and a cow, who give him, respectively, down for a pillow, eggs for 
bread, honey to pour on the bread, and fresh milk to go with the snack. The animals all proceed to settle
 down in their own farmyard places before transforming into plush bedside companions for the child. He 
poses a final question... before a closing scene of the cow jumping over the

 moon in a last visual nod to Mother Goose. Listeners will likely be nodding off by this point, especially if 
this book is paired with the author’s bedtime riff on “Little Red Hen,” Who’s Awake in Springtime?" Booklist

     "Through creative tweaking, a familiar nursery rhyme...returns as a cadenced lesson in farmyard enterprise as well as a comforting bedtime lullaby....Primitive, folksy, multi-hued illustrations expand the pleasantly repetitive, rhyming text...." Kirkus

"...Gershator’s rhymes tell an engaging bedtime story that is enriched by Potter’s parallel visual narrative." Horn Book

From a New York Times review of Moo, Moo, Brown Cow
and Farmyard Beat by Lindsey Craig:
Much more calming but no less beguiling is “Moo, Moo, Brown Cow, Have You Any Milk?” by Phillis Gershator. It begins with a little boy voicing the
classic Mother Goose entreaty — “Baa Baa, black sheep, have you any wool?”— and builds from there, weaving a story out of a farmyard of animals’ contributions. “Honk, honk, gray goose, have you any down? ‘Yes, sir, yes, sir, half a pound’ ” on one page carries over to the next: “Does down make a pillow for my head? ‘Yes, sir, yes, sir,’ the gray goose said.”
Giselle Potter’s graceful paintings are done in her distinctive folk-art style, with greens and blues, adding to the effect, at once pensive and lulling. The story unwinds toward a literally dreamy ending as the farmyard animals are transfigured into stuffed toys in the little boy’s bed, complete with a black wool blanket. One of these books will happily rouse a classroom, the other gently guide it to naptime.