DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE!
(A Coyote’s on the Loose!)
by Karen Beaumont & illustrated by Jose Aruego & Ariane Dewey
There is a good blend of musicality, movement, and suspense—all pegged for the preschooler’s ear—in this cumulative rhyme-along from Beaumont. Duck, duck, goose convince themselves that there is a coyote on the loose when they discern a pair of eyes peering from beneath a moving pile of twigs, leaves, and muck. Duck and goose hare off to warn the other members of the farmyard community. “Goose, goose, pig . . . / And he’s really, really big! / Pig, pig, pup . . . / He is going to eat us up!” One and all are alerted, a great cast of creatures, all dolled up in party colors and with looks of alarm washing across their pusses, courtesy of Aruego and Dewey’s sharp, comical artwork. The mobile compost heap turns out to harbor a rabbit, who strikes the only bland note in the scramble: “I just want you to play with me!” Why mewl? “Gotcha!” is what those scaredy-cats deserve. (Picture book. 3-6)