Can U Save the Day?

PreS-Gr 1-It's consonants vs. vowels in Stocker's debut picture book. The letter B brags, "There are 5 vowels in your group/but 21 in our grand troop./I'm a more important letter. Consonants are so.../much.../BETTER!" The vowels take great offense and one by one leave the alphabet. Told using the alphabet, animals, and the sounds they make, this story educates readers about the concept of consonants and the importance of vowels. Off A, E, I, O, and U go, and the farm animals suffer. The dog says "brk," the horse says "nigh," the birds "twt," the pig says "onk," and the consonants cannot stop laughing. That is, until a tractor comes hurtling toward them and it is up to U to find a way to reunite the alphabet and save the animal sounds. Disbury's colorful illustrations pop against the clean white background. The playful animals and letters have detailed expressions that add greatly to the story line. VERDICT This slight but fun rhyming addition to elementary libraries and classrooms will guarantee laughs as a read-aloud and will teach a lesson in cooperation and respect and give some pointers on how to apologize.-Morgan O'Reilly, Riverdale Country School, NY

Boorish B, the bully of this animalian/abcedarian barnyard, flaunts to A the consonants' numerical superiority over their vowel peers ("There are 5 vowels in your group/ but 21 in our grand troop" begins Stocker in consistent rhyme). Insulted, A disappears, changing the animals' cries from "bark" to "brk," "quack" to "quck," and "croak" to "crok." Soon E, I, and O take off, too, leaving the animals tongue-tied ("Mmmmmm?" says the cow). And the situation worsens when a rogue tractor threatens to barrel through a field of snoozing consonants. B and U are quick to notice, but without O, the tractor's horn only musters a "hnk."After U saves the day by making an unexpected transformation, she sets things to rights around the farm. Disbury's expressive ink-and-wash letters add to the narrative's playfulness and drama in equal measure. An adventuresome lesson in phonetics and friendship. Ages 6-7. (Aug.)