WAKE UP, BIG BARN!

A rhyming celebration of the barnyard for the toddler set—haven’t we seen this before? Bright, striking collages set against an expanse of white background depict the denizens of yet another barnyard. Newcomer Tanner’s cut- and torn-paper figures are big and bold and highly textured—almost better for group sharing than one-on-one, as distance pulls the bits of paper into a cohesive whole. A bright red rooster crows with such energy that he sets his feathers flying, and a quintet of frogs dance on the rocks. The text takes an active role in the illustration, capering across the page with abandon. Unfortunately, the text can’t support the illustrations: a forced rhyme comments on each individual spread with no attempt to create any kind of narrative, so the reader gets a disconnected string of animals and objects. Largely onomatopoetic, in order to be understood as rhyme, the text also demands to be read at a clip that shortchanges both the illustrations and the very young children who are this offering’s natural audience. Buy a copy of Fleming’s Barnyard Banter instead, and hope for a more original and successful marriage of text and illustration in the talented artist’s next outing. (Picture book. 1-4)