Bernardosaurus says:
My Publisher, Harcourt Brace, was very happy with The Cow That Went Oink, and wondered if there were other ideas with this cow that was so good at learning new sounds. I started thinking about the different animal sounds heard on a farm. I thought of the first sound everyone hears on a farm in the morning, "cock-a-doodle-doo," and that's when "cock-a-doodle-moo" popped into my head.
This turned into my story of a rooster that loses his voice and can only whisper, "cock-a-doodle-doo." He tries again and again, but he can't wake anyone with "cock-a-doodle-doo" until he wakes the cow by tapping her.
The rooster tries to teach the cow how to cock-a-doodle-doo. After many tries, "mock-a-moodle-moo," "sock-a-noodle-moo," "rock-a-poodle-moo," "clock-a-doodle-moo," everyone on the farm wakes with a laugh. "Cheep-ha." "Oink-ha." "Moo-ha." "Quack-ha." Even the farmer wakes up with "Ha-ha." So at the end of the end of the book when the rooster gets his voice back, they go around waking everyone on the farm together with "Cock-a-doodle-moo!"
I was thrilled when I found out that children in Missouri voted for Cock-A-Doodle-Moo! as their favorite book, and it received the "Missouri Building Block Award."