The Quest of the Warrior Sheep
by Christine and Christopher Russell
When 5 Rare Breed sheep find a cell phone that fell from the sky, they think it is a call to fulfill an ancient prophecy. They embark on a great adventure, which takes them on a subway, a train, a helicopter, a tractor, and finally up into a vicious mountain storm.
The boy who lives next door to the sheep believes they've been abducted by aliens.
The cell phone they found is actually important evidence in a bank heist, which resulted in the sheep's owners losing all of their life savings.
It's quite an adventure. We finished reading it this morning, and both Bubs and Welly have separately already asked me to start reading it again.
The five sheep are great, unique characters. There's Sal. She's kind of the leader, although not necessarily the smartest. There's Oxo, who really only cares about eating. There's Links, who is always breaking out into a rap. There's Jaycey, who is dainty and cares about her hoof paint. And lastly, there's Wills. He's the real brains of the group.
On the Con side, this book has some not-so-nice for little kids language. Since I was reading it aloud, it wasn't a problem, but there are quite a few stupids, shut-ups, and some name-calling (geek and Woolbags mostly) that I skipped over. There is also one scene where the neighbor boy takes a reporter out for dinner and Beer. I just said drink instead of Beer. Anyway. Fair warning.
For the reasons mentioned above, I recommend reading it aloud to your kids. My 7 and 5 year old seemed about the perfect ages for it. Amazon recommends it for 9-12, so that too, I guess. :)
