THE EAR BOOK

This new edition of a title that has introduced generations of emergent readers to sounds pairs the unaltered and more or less still satisfactory 1968 text to new illustrations that update at least some of the details of dress and objects while preserving the slapdash energy of William O’Brian’s original cartoons. Both new and old iterations feature a young narrator and his dog cocking ears to the “Tick Tock” of a clock, the “Toot Toot” of a flute, Dad’s snore, a huffy sister slamming the door, planes, trains and the rain. While for variety and aural nuance this could never touch Margaret Wise Brown’s Noisy Book series, it has long been a fixture on library shelves—and its new visuals should help to keep it there for a few more decades. (Easy reader. 5-7)