Hullabaloo ABC

Aha! Boo! Cock-a-doodle-doo! It's morning on the farm, and there are sights and sounds galore. Donkeys are braying, pigs are grunting, cows are mooing-even the jays are jabbering! From clucks and cackles to rumbles and whoops, this rollicking alphabet book takes young readers on a barnyard romp that is chock-full of noisy words they will love to hear and say out loud. Beverly Cleary's timeless text comes to life in vibrant new illustrations by Ted Rand. Here is a book that is guaranteed to delight a whole new generation of readers.

An alphabet book in which two children demonstrate all the fun that is to be had by making and hearing every kind of noise as they dash about on the farm.

Aha! Boo! Cock-a-doodle-doo! It's morning on the farm, and there are sights and sounds galore. Donkeys are braying, pigs are grunting, cows are mooing-even the jays are jabbering! From clucks and cackles to rumbles and whoops, this rollicking alphabet book takes young readers on a barnyard romp that is chock-full of noisy words they will love to hear and say out loud. Beverly Cleary's timeless text comes to life in vibrant new illustrations by Ted Rand. Here is a book that is guaranteed to delight a whole new generation of readers.

Publishers Weekly

As its title suggests, the energy level of this alphabet storybook runs high, thanks in part to Cleary's choice of verbs ("Flutter," "Jabber," "Rumble"), lively onomatopoeic sounds ("Kerchoo!" "Putt-putt," "Toot-toot") and animal noises ("Hee-haw," "Quack-quack") that lead off these 26 brief verses. Rand's (Knots on a Counting Rope) hearty watercolors endow the volume's clamorous crewa spunky trio of siblings and the animal residents of their farmwith particular appeal. Ranging from panoramic views of a timeless rural setting to close-ups of kids and critters, Rand's pictures document the antic proceedings, until a thunder storm arrives and the children are summoned back to the farmhouse. Occasional lazy rhyme schemes (e.g., rips/trip; racket/whack it) and lapses in rhythm ("N for Noises,/ Clucks and cackles./ A hawk!/ It scatters the hens/ And makes them squawk") trip the tongue. Still, Cleary teaches as she tells her story, and Rand's art is consistently divertinga winning combination in a preschool read-aloud. Ages 3-up. (Apr.)

New readers find a friend in Beverly Cleary, who displays an uncanny understanding of kid life in Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Henry Huggins, and other titles in her classic series of books about life on Klickitat Street -- books that hold up decade after decade.