Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Pig, Horse, or Cow, Don't Wake Me Now by Arlene Alda

From School Library Journal:
A companion to Alda's Sheep, Sheep, Sheep, Help Me Fall Asleep (Doubleday, 1992) that once again makes a connection between the animal and human world. Written in elementary rhyme, the story starts with a peacock calling for corn, and from there one creature's sounds wake up another-a calf, a lamb, a duck, etc.-in succession, until finally a boy is roused from his dreams. He races his mother down to breakfast, where he "ate like a pig and chomped like a horse." While the flow of the opening pages works well, the leap to the waking boy is less convincing. His exploits take up the latter half of the book, slowing the narrative considerably. Only very young children who delight in seeing photographs of real animals would find much of interest in this title. While the pictures are colorful and sharply focused, they are rather static. Only by moving back to the resplendent peacock does the book regain a sense of composure and closure.

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