From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1—This gentle narrative invites children to join in the sounds and actions of various wild creatures. "Can you click like a dolphin,/swimming through the seas?/Can you buzz like a honeybee,/floating on a breeze?" Each uncluttered spread introduces a new animal, easily distinguishable to young children in Butler's signature hazy, pastel-hued paintings. As the pages turn, day passes into night with successively quieter activities. The book closes with a snoozing animal kingdom, each creature smiling peacefully in its sleep. Large text curves gracefully through each image. Nature is depicted as ever-friendly, where frolicking, twinkly-eyed animals lope through soft grasses. While similar works abound,
Can You Growl Like a Bear? is one of the higher-quality offerings in the animal-imitation genre. This simple book will fit easily into any storytime or bedtime repertoire.—
Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This engaging picture book challenges children to make animal sounds—not the typical barnyard cacophony but less-familiar ones, from the click of a dolphin to the howl of a wolf. Butler illustrates each animal and its habitat on a broad double-page spread. With acrylics and colored pencils, he uses soft strokes of color and rounded forms to create large-scale pictures with immediate appeal. Written in rhymed couplets, the text asks one question after another: "Can you trumpet like an elephant, tramping across the plain? / Can you croak like a tree frog, basking in the rain?" Children will enjoy making the suggested sounds and getting lost in the eye-catching scenes. The last spread, 10 small circular pictures, shows each animal sleeping and urges children to close their eyes and fall asleep, too. Despite its conventional bedtime-book ending, this picture book is also a natural for sharing with groups of young children. Phelan, Carolyn
