WHO WAKES ROOSTER?

Who wakes rooster? As it turns out, the sun has that responsibility. However, the book opens before sun-up, so readers meet a farm of slumbering creatures in the pre-dawn: dog and cat, horse and pig and cow and, yes, a snoozing rooster, who cracks into action come the early light, thus prompting a cacophony of moos, neighs, and snorts as the barnyard readies for another day. A little boy witnesses the transformation, then lets his mother think her kisses wake him. Meeker gets the diurnal rhythms of the farm just right, that ancient slipping from all quiet to all a-buzz, as she lets each animal's circumstance trip into the next's: ``Bounce isn't barking. Where is Bounce? Dozing in his doghouse, peacefully dreaming, because Miranda isn't meowing. Where is Miranda?'' The flow is gentle, the pulse is steady. Halsey's illustrations look like cut-outs, staged and photographed, that also reveal themselves as trompe l'oeil marvels. It adds a wondrous realism to the proceedings. (Picture book. 2-6)