Boom! Bellow! Bleat!: Animal Poems for Two or More Voices [Paperback]

This playful collection of poems--peppered with an astounding variety of animal sounds--is meant to be read aloud together.

These poems for two or more voices explore the myriad sounds animals make--from a frog's jug-o-rum to a fish's boom! to an elephant's bark. Laced with humor, the poems are a delight to read aloud and cover all major classes of animals: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, even a crustacean! Readers will learn how to estimate the temperature by counting a cricket's chirps and see how creatures make sounds at specific pitches and frequencies, so that they can be heard despite other noise around them. Extensive end notes provide more information on the animals and how and why they make the sounds they do. Written by noted children's poet Georgia Heard, this is an ideal collection for parents and children to share, or for a fun, interactive classroom read-aloud.A NCTE Notable Poetry Book

One thing that sets picture books apart from titles for older readers is that we often share them with another person. Georgia Heard’s text leans into this interactive experience, creating the space for distinct speakers in each poem. Each is intended as a sort of duet, with the text set in different colors to differentiate the alternating parts. The book relies heavily on the humor and child-friendly simplicity of animal noises, but the noises animals make are not always what you’d expect…the beauty of poetry for small children is that the sounds of words can be appealing long before their meanings are fully understood… Heard’s engaging poems, paired with Aaron DeWitt’s bright digital images of the natural world, are designed to bring readers together, and with an informative author’s note on various elements of the natural world, they may also fl³)