From Publishers Weekly
With an imagination tickler for a title, Hindley (The Big Red Bus) and Granstrm (Baby Knows Best) send a multi-ethnic group of children on a cheery survey of the farmyard. "Does a cow say boo?" asks the omniscient narrator. Granstrm pictures a quartet of children entertaining the question: a redheaded girl sticks her fingers on her head in imitation of the cow's horns while the cow itself seems to answer the question. "A cow says... moo! That's what a cow says and you can, too. So who says boo?" The text continues along these rhetorical-participatory lines as the children scamper (and in one case, toddle) around the pens and barn, meeting up with sound-rich critters that utter an "oink," "woof," "neigh" and more. Working in watercolors and pencil, Granstrm renders vibrantly colored farm scenes from a wealth of vantage points, including the rafter perch of a barn owl. Vigorous brush strokes bring to life the distinctive textures, whether the regal feathering of a rooster or the tousled shagginess of a sheepdog. All barnyard denizens appear happy to be seen and even handled by the intrepid explorers. The answer to the title question comes on the final spread, when the children exuberantly demonstrate that saying "Boo" is a specialty of their own species. Ages 2-5.
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Ages 4-6. Bright, energetic illustrations portray a multiracial group of children romping around a farm in this playful introduction to animal noises. Starting with the cow, then going on to a pig, a dog, a cat, an owl, and so on, the text poses the title question for each animal, then reveals the animal's actual utterance: "Moo! That's what a cow says--and you can, too!" Even creatures that don't make noise at all, such as ladybugs, snails, and worms, are acknowledged ("some little creatures say nothing at all"). Very young listeners, as well as children old enough to read the rhyming text on their own will enjoy making the noises and eagerly jump out of their seats to shout "Boo!" at the end.
Diane FooteCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
