By now, every child familiar with Jan Thomas's Rhyming Dust Bunnies knows that the answer to the title question is YES!--with the possible exception of the chicken whose sofa gets the brunt of a bovine trio's schemes in this hilarious picture book.
"Look! It's Chicken's sofa!" a dark brown cow yells, pointing a hoof at an alluring red loveseat. The two cow sidekicks raise their forelegs in anticipation and, with a turn of the page, we see them in various stages, airborne and in the process of landing. "PLOP," say the giant cherry-red letters perfectly matched to the sofa. And that's even before we reach the title page. Chicken pops in from the right-hand margin, with only its red comb and beak and rolling wide eyes showing.
Chicken embodies the disapproving adult and the three cows the naughty children fully aware that they're breaking the rules. "JUMP! Up and down, up and down. Let's all JUMP up and down!" says one cow, "On Chicken's sofa!" adds the instigator dark brown cow. When Chicken says "There's no JUMPING on my sofa!" the cow buddies come up with other alternatives: dancing, for instance, and wiggling. Thomas perfectly captures the boundless energy of children both physically and mentally (when it comes to inventing creative ways to bend the rules). The author-artist arrives at a delicate balance: we never get the feeling that the cows are jumping, dancing and wiggling on the couch to spite Chicken--they just can't help themselves. Chicken (and adults) can rest easy when the final idea from the dark brown cow is a... NAP! Sensational. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness