Synopsis
Listen up, Old MacDonald! Following the charming appeal of Chuck’s Truck, this tale sees Chuck and his barnyard friends forming a band, and boy howdy, these critters can really play! Join the ruckus with Peggy Perry Anderson’s toe-tapping, knee-slapping rhymes and bright illustrations introducing all of the musicians and their different instruments. While Chuck plays the banjo, the goat, Flo, joins him on her mandolin, and all the rest make music too: “With a strum and a hum, a peck and a pluck, they all played a tune while the chicken went, ‘Cluck.’” But what is the matter with Fat Cat Pat? Does she want her own instrument too, or is something else making that cat blue?
School Library Journal
PreS-K- A simple rhyming tale of latent musical talent let loose. Each barnyard animal-except a green cat-finds its instrument and joins the hoedown. A large red hound strums a guitar as a small white Terrier blows on a harmonica. A duck pecks on a washboard, and a donkey taps on a bucket. Drawn in bright crayon, the characters are complemented by the green grass, a blue acrylic sky, and the outline of the yellow farmhouse. One page reads, "Tuck plays the guitar-/strum, strum,/strum! Nip plays harmonica-hum,/hum, hum!" To the right of the spread a spotted cow and pink pig seem to be repressing a jig ("The big cow Lou and the/little sow Sue wanted to/make some/music, too"). Emerging readers will find the large print accessible as well as the mirroring relationship between text and illustration. Preschoolers will delight in this read-aloud that has much potential for participation-spoons, knee slapping, and clapping. One caution: the foot-stompin' rhythm may leave some adults with a fiddle sound reeling through their heads.-Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA
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