City Sounds

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Like Peter Spier's Gobble, Growl, and Grunt , these concept books contain a compendium of sounds. In Jungle Sounds , a green-mottled alligator snaps his mouth at orange butterflies while two plump hippos say, ``glub glup.'' And ``pik a tik'' is the sound birds make poking at a rhino. In City Sounds , people's shoes not only tap and clomp, but tennis shoes ``squinch'' and cowboy boots ``kalunk kalunk.'' Some sounds are traditional, like the ``yeowl'' of the cat, some are onomatopoeic, like the ``ooh hoo hoo'' of the chimpanzee and some are meant to be fun, like the ``muncha cruncha'' of the giraffes. Emberley's flat canvas of brightly colored paper cutouts is interesting in its design, and the concept behind each book is solid. The ``glossary of sounds'' found at the end of Jungle Sounds is helpful (it names the various animals in the book). However, the glossary in City Sounds seems unnecessarily repetitive with its pairings: ``snoring--zzzzz,'' ``telephone--brrinng brrinng,'' and ``horse--klip klop.'' Ages 3-6. (Apr.)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1-- These two eye-catching (or is it ear-catching?) picture books are sure to be in demand. Tableaux snipped from colored paper illustrate noise makers, whether alive or not, and the sounds they produce. The exuberant colors and decorative, flat patterns of each scene invite comment, storytelling, and art projects in addition to readers ' imitation of sound. The books have a similar style. In each one, cut-paper illustrations bleed right off the pages, in a hurry and uncontained. Here are worlds of energy, noise , and color: a child's world of promised adventure. In City Sounds readers hear the onomatapoetic rhythms of an urban day. Life calls out at window and sidewalk levels, as well as in between. A toaster goes pop and high heels go tip-a-tap. The whirrrr, boommm, and rat-a-tat-a-tat of a construction job assault the ears. Jungle Sounds contains almost as much lively background chatter as a TV nature special. Familiar tiger, chimpanzee, and lion noises are here, but also the challenges of listening to ants, a gecko, and a poison arrow frog. Krroak, krroak as well as ROAWR! roawr interrupt the jungle stillness. This book is exceptional for its stunning page design. Each book has a glossary of sounds and their origins appended to it. Reading these delightful books is sure to send children around to Peter Spier's old favorite, Gobble, Growl, Grunt (Doubleday, 1988) and to Molly Bang's The Paper Crane (Greenwillow, 1985), or, if they have already enjoyed these old standbys, off on new adventures. --Anna Biagioni Hart, Sherwood Regional Library, Alexandria, Va.