ROAR!

Outsized animals open wide, inviting younger children to do the same.

“Tiger, tiger, / is that you, / hiding in / the tall bamboo?” Six wild animals pace, glide, or slither through natural settings—seen alternately from the side and then full page and face on in images that gape with the lift of unusually large flaps to expose toothy or fanged maws and a rousing “GRRRR GRRRR” or other prompt. In addition to the tiger, readers meet a crocodile, a generic snake, a monkey, and a lion, each set against a clean background with the occasional whimsical touch (a dragonfly gives the tiger a side-eye; a frog looks nervously at the crocodile). Along with building up to repeated crescendos in her accompanying rhymes (“Such pointy teeth, / your tail so long, / such scaly scales, / and jaws / so strong”) Kerouli uses big, rounded, simplified shapes and bright color contrasts to create both instant recognition and immediate visual drama. Even with a slow reading it’s all over too soon, but the pictures are tailor-made for sharing with big groups, and all the roaring, snapping, and hissing will leave audiences of any size set for follow-up action rhymes, a round of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” or a high-volume thematic cousin like Brian McLachlan’s convention-busting What Noise Do I Make? (2016). Alas, the flaps are flimsy enough that they will not likely withstand direct use by children.

Roaring good fun.