Read, Read, Read, said the Baby: Arf! Buzz! Cluck! A rather noisy alphabet by Eric Seltzer, illustrated by David Creighton-Pester

This colorful alphabet book is sure to be a favorite of wiggly babies and toddlers, especially those who like to make animal sounds!

The opening spread features a frame of excited animals, most making sounds, surrounding the introductory rhymes, "Hey! We are animals./We're noisy as can be./We chirp, we moo, we squeak/from letters A to Z!" Each following spread shows a collection of animals and several sounds or actions, organized alphabetically. One scene shows a green chicken yard with red chicken houses, yellow, orange, and red chickens, and a purple and blue rooster. They chirp, cluck, and cock-a-doodle-doo, covering letters C-D. Another spread shows a snowy landscape with walruses barking on the ice, orcas jumping in the water, and polar bears kissing, covering I-K. The story ends with a savanna scene; a zebra whinnies, ground squirrels excitedly twitter, a rhino yells, and a cheetah zooms through the scene to finish off W-Z.

Although not always absolutely accurate, or identifiable as a specific species, there's a nice variety of animals and the colorful pictures are very attractive. Even more fun is the wide range of actions and sounds for kids to mimic. The only drawback to using this in storytime is it's small size - it's 7x6 inches so would need to be used in a one-on-one reading or have multiple copies, especially since there's a lot packed into each page.

Verdict: A great addition to storytime collections if you buy multiple board books, otherwise it will be a fun one-on-one read for caregivers.

ISBN: 9781534412972; Published July 2018 by Little Simon; Borrowed from another library in my consortium