TOS CREW Review: Hank the Cow Dog

Hank the Cowdog has been an award winning line of books, audios, and games (among other products) that has been around since the 1980's. I had not heard of them before I received my review package from them. In it contained Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud horse, Tales and Tunes from Hank CD, and Tornado game.

The stories are told from the perspective of Hank the Cowdog. He is from northern Texas and is a little ruff and gruff around the edges. The tone of the stories are reminiscent to me of what I would have listened to growing up in the 70's and 80's. The stories lean on the silly to nonsensical. Although children tend to love these kind of stories, because we tend not to read these type of stories, my husband and I screened them together.

Hank is the "Head of Security" on the ranch. He tells different stories of his encounters and stories involving several of the main characters: Sally Mae (the human,) Drover, Wallace the Buzzard, and Pete the Barncat. Other characters are also briefly mentioned. All the books are also available in audio format.

The CD contains a sampling of the stories and songs from the books. My husband enjoyed them somewhat, for every time I tried to skip ahead to the next story on the CD, he would make me wait until the end of the story. Like I said, Hank is a little rough with his speech and likes to use words and phrases such as darn, ninny, "little snot", "what the heck," and calls people moron, dumb, and stupid. So I was not comfortable reading this to my children or letting them listen to the CD.

The Tornado game is similar to "Sorry" or "Trouble" games. Your goal is to get your men around the board first while sending other players back to start. My children did have fun playing the game. The game is simple enough that non-readers as well as readers can enjoy the game together. It is compact and folds nicely so you can take it with you when you travel. The pieces are the characters from the books and stories.

You can hear samples of the story: The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse HERE.
You can hear samples of the CD: Tales and Tunes from Hank The Cowdog HERE.

You can find out more about the Tornado game HERE.