YAKETY YAK

A lively exploration of animal names with matching action words.

Opening with “Two yaks yak loudly” and closing with “Hounds hound a celebrity,” this introduction to 16 animals with names that also act as action verbs proves playful and entertaining. Each animal’s name and its corresponding sound-alike verb are used in a short sentence printed in large, bold type, with the verb’s phonetic pronunciation and definition printed in smaller type below. Dynamic, colorful, comical double-page illustrations add a surprising, lighthearted visual context for each pair. For “a duck ducks just in time,” the illustration reveals a duck on a construction site wearing a hard hat ducking to avoid a beam. Illustrating “a bear bears bread and butter,” a bear working as a waiter in a restaurant totes a tray of bakery treats. And when “a bat bats last,” a bat wearing a baseball helmet prepares to swing at an approaching ball. Rendered with visual and verbal panache, other unexpected and amusing scenarios include a perch perching in a tree to dive, cranes craning their necks to see in a movie theater, and flounders floundering as they attempt to ride bicycles. Young readers may need some help in understanding a few of them, as with the bug that does not pester others but rather eavesdrops via a listening device. Some readers may cavil at the depiction of bald eagles in the “hawk hawks hats” scene.

Delightful wordplay.