Maxy is upset when her parents' farm is left without animals after a
health scare, but she keeps their memory alive looking after her own
herd of ' pretend cows' . With her mother having fallen ill during
pregnancy, her father starts to keep chickens and Maxy comes to terms
with the challenges of the new birth as she encourages a stubborn hen to
lay eggs. Pretend Cows is one in a series of six illustrated short
stories about young people growing up in the countryside.