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)
Pub Date: June 26, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-375-84251-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
Demarest (Plane, 1995, etc.) abandons his familiar minimalist cartoons for a more elaborate style in this tribute to the cowboy mythos. Captioned by a rhymed alphabet—“A is for Appaloosa, a trusty steed. B is for Buckaroo, who rides at top speed”—the scenes depict a crew of cowhands (of both sexes) working horses, cattle, and sheep through a series of unspoiled, wide-open landscapes. Rendering chaps and stetsons, nighthawks and prairie dogs in loving detail, Demarest captures that rugged, outdoorsy life at its most romanticized, and will leave readers itching to saddle up. (Picture book. 6-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7894-2509-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
As she lovingly details the comfortable disarray of a perfectly splendid staircase, a small mouse counts off the stairs in a game she has clearly played many times. The rhyme skips and leaps from “First step. Rain step,” because that’s where her puddle boots are, to the third step, where the window seat is, to the sixth, where she can peer into her own bedroom, to the eleventh where the night light lives, and the twelfth where she can go back down and start again. She’s accompanied by her little sister and readers catch a glimpse at the end of a mother, father, and baby, too. The details are whimsical, and the rhyme infectious. A real treat, perfectly centered on a small child’s perceptions and experience. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-886910-34-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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