POPCORN

This entry in a series for very new readers has few words and clear rhymes: “Popcorn. Popcorn./Put it in a pot./Popcorn. Popcorn./Get the pot hot.” In a Fauvist kitchen, a multicolored cast of characters—purple and blue dogs, a fuchsia cat, a boy and a girl (he’s African-American; she’s Latina) put those kernels in a big kettle. “Popcorn. Popcorn./Pop! Pop! Pop!/Popcorn. Popcorn./Stop! Stop! Stop!” The fluffy kernels spill out the door into the green and gold world, where other folk come to get their own bags full. “Popcorn. Popcorn./Get it while it’s hot./We are happy./We like it a lot.” Children who are just beginning to master the connection of word to object will adore this, and marvel that they can, indeed, read it. (Picture book. 5-9)