THE COZY BOOK
by Mary Ann Hoberman & illustrated by Betty Fraser
The word cozy—warmth, ease, snugness—may not be the perfect choice for this compendium of hundreds of action and sensory experiences associated with one long day. The collaborators behind A House Is A House For Me (1978), which gets a plug in this book, include seesaws, fruit stands, cheek-popping, tongue-clicking, insect buzzing, alleys, clowns, cellars, traffic noise, airplanes overhead. As a chronicle of the author's favorite things, the relentless surge of words in rhyme offers toddlers much to listen to. Fraser's illustration are just as daunting; the spreads require lingering even as the words push readers ever onward. Accept this as riotously pell-mell wordplay and as a catalog of a child's world—then it's right on the mark. (Picture book. 4-7)