'Shame-faced, sad-eyed, as though they know that they had failed...', 16 Sep 2014

This review is from: Ludmila: A Legend of Liechtenstein (Hardcover)
Quite a sweet little novel (48 pages inc illustrations.) The cows from a Liechtenstein village are due to return home from a summer in the mountain pastures. The best milk producers get to wear ribbons and bells in the procession home, but poor little 'Weakling' is sad, knowing she will never qualify for such glories, and also that she is causing poverty to her owner. Then she appears to be praying to the statue to Saint Ludmila:...
'For a prayer need not be a rhetorical address, or an itemized petition, or lips moved soundlessly inside a cathedral, or even words spoken into the air. A prayer may be a wordless inner longing, a sudden outpouring of love, a yearning within the soul to be for the moment united with the infinite and the good...'
Probably aimed at the young-adult age group. ( )

This is a simple, sweet story about an annual cattle competition held in the mountains of Lichtenstein, and particularly about a cow who beats the odds thanks to the divine intervention of St. Ludmila. It is a very quick read and certainly unique. ( )

The story of a scrawny, unproductive but pure-hearted cow in Lichtenstein -- her name is Weakling -- who desperately wants to produce enough milk to set the record and march at the head of the parade at the end of milking season. At the request of the local priest, Saint Ludmila intercedes for Weakling and the entire country celebrates the miracle.

A very gentle, touching novelette which would be suitable for all ages. I think of myself as a quite unsentimental person, but it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling and nearly brought tears to my eyes. ( )