The Very Peculiar Cow and other stories by Enid Blyton is a collection of short stories titled The Very Peculiar Cow, The Land of Nowhere, On Jimmy's Birthday, Oranges in the Road, Peppermint Rock, You Simply Never Know!, Teddy Bear is Naughty!, He Didn't Know What to Do and Rufus Pays Back .
The Very Peculiar Cow begins with a description of two children named Jane and William being given a milk jug in the shape of a cow as a present from their granny. At first the children think it is a toy animal, but later realise that it is made of porcelain and has a lid similar to that of a teapot lid. When the cow jug was not being used at tea-time or breakfast-time it was kept on the mantelpiece. William puts one of his little toy horses on the mantelpiece with it and Jane puts her small farmhouse dog and two sheep from Noah’s Ark so that the cow jug will not feel lonely and make friends with the toys when they come alive at night.
But the toys are puzzled by the cow jug’s peculiar appearance and turn their backs on it. The teddy bear is the only toy who wants to make friends with the cow jug whose name is Clover. Teddy tells the other toys to include Clover when they play but they refuse to do so.
One night, the teddy bear climbs onto the mantelpiece to make friends with Clover, and then the toy clown climbs up to play with the cow jug. When the other toys see the teddy bear and toy clown play with Clover, they also climb on to the mantelpiece to play with it which makes Clover unhappy because the toys are using it to have fun.
But one night something unexpected happens in the nursery and Clover is able to be useful and the toys make friends with it after that.
Reviewed by Hannah William