GOOD MORNING, FARM

Wake up! It’s time to meet the farm animals.

A rooster with boldly colored plumage begins the morning wake-up call against a sunrise-peach sky. The dog wakes—“Woof, woof!”—and rouses the sheep: “Baa!” And so it goes, with cow, horse, pig, and goat each taking center stage by turn. Each animal gets full-spread treatment against clear blue skies and uncluttered backdrops. The signature noise and name of each animal are set in boldface within two sentences of descriptive text. Following this description, the narrator spies a tail, ear, hoof, or horn on the right edge of each spread that hints at which animal will appear next. On each spread, a tiny mouse that’s hidden in plain sight sleeps through the noise, finally waking on the penultimate spread, in which: “Shhh! The cat is still sleeping.” The final-spread reprise of all eight farm animal sounds finally wakens the cat. The smiling, large-scale animals make it clear what toddler readers should focus on, the simple, farm-scene backgrounds putting the animals in context without too many distractions. Guessing which animal is next and searching for the hidden mouse provide just the right amount of interaction for the target age group.

Toddlers will be ready to sing “Old MacDonald” after this board-book guessing game.