TARO GOMI’S BIG BOOK OF VERBS

In this Japanese import, children’s book author and illustrator Gomi, best known for Everyone Poops (1977), tackles more than 300 verbs in crowded scenes reminiscent of Richard Scarry’s work.

On each layout, a new story unfolds in a different setting—an amusement park, an ice-skating rink, a swimming pool, and more. Each spread is framed by a numbered list of 34 verbs, each of which corresponds to a specific image. Kids can read each verb and then find the corresponding number or start with an image and scan the list for the appropriate word. Each page feels as though someone’s hit the pause button on a busy scene. The school, for example, features over 80 different children and adults engaged in all sorts of activities: playing instruments, crying, fighting, hitting, tickling, building, and reading (among many, many others). The verbs range from simple ones, like talk, to rich vocabulary such as devour and ascend and even more colloquial words including freak out. Some kids may notice discrepancies. In a camping spread, for example, children are seen riding horses and playing in a stream (daylight activities) while another is sleepwalking (a nighttime activity). Still, readers will love poring over the details. Nearly all of the people in Gomi’s simplified illustrations are brown-skinned and black-haired.

Chaotic, silly, and fun.