Have a Look, Says Book.

A giant book and a larger-than-life armchair invite a father and daughter to read with them: "Hello there, says Chair. Have a look, says Book." (The line shows up just in time to do double duty on the title page.) Seated in the armchair, the pair sails through the book's cover and inside, where friendly animals and objects present themselves as things to be touched and felt: "I am furry, says Kitten, / I am wooly, says Sock./ I am wet, says Mitten./ We are fleecy, says Flock (stock-still on a rock)." Hawkes's (The Three Mouths of Little Tom Drum) droll, dreamy sequences play with scale as the girl peeks out of a giant sock, avoids drips from a colossal mitten, then perches on the tail of the y in "fleecy." In his first book as author, longtime children's editor Jackson's jaunty, rhythmic verse draws readers in--it's the kind of book that's easy to memorize. "Comfy the one, cozy the pair," the book concludes fondly as father and daughter float off into the night sky. "Toodle-oo, you two there." A shoe-in for the bedtime rotation. Ages 3-7. (Apr.)

PreS-Gr 2--Bright illustrations take readers, along with a girl and her papa in an oversize armchair, on a roller-coaster ride through the pages of a beckoning book. The book wants its visitors to look and listen, but, most importantly, it wants them to touch--to try to call forth a tactile experience through visuals and adjectives. "I am furry says Kitten./I am wooly says Sock./I am wet says Mitten./We are fleecy says Flock (stock-still on a rock)." Single- and double-page artwork done in gouache shows the girl and the furry kitten, who follows through the pages, interacting with each of the large objects suspended mostly in white space, giving the visuals an Alice in Wonderland spirit. Many of the adjectives themselves are part of the art and appear to have the texture they describe. Though some of the adjectives capture the essence of the nouns better than others, all are thought provoking. Nubbly knees? Barky trees? As the book winds down, describing cocoa and cake, Papa suggests a break, and the chair sails out of the other side of a very grateful book: "Thanks for the listen, /thanks for the touch, /thanks for the look, /thank you so much." VERDICT This celebration of sharing a book together encourages readers to think more about words and textures.--Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA