Duck Duck Moose by Mary Sullivan

 I have to admit that I often find picture books that double as early readers to be annoying. They're the wrong format to be shelved in the early reader section, but how will kids find them in the picture books, which are generally meant to be read aloud? However, sometimes they're just so fun that you have to get them and just hope they will be found - and early readers will pick up on reading together with the adult reader.

Mary Sullivan has written and illustrated several books with minimal or no text that combine humor and comic-style speech bubbles and panels. This one opens with a white child, wearing a scarf around their head, a stubby ponytail, and big glasses running frantically across a grassy hill and yelling "Duck, Duck, Moose! Duck, Duck, Moose!" Turn the page and find said moose and two ducks playing cards at a table with a polka-dot table-cloth. Startled, they ask, "What? WHAT? WHAT?" and the child asks "Where is Goose?" The rest of the story continues along these lines as the friends frantically repeat their queries, searching the farmyard, get attacked by wasps, and finally settle into bed. But the next morning... guess who shows up? It's Goose! Dance party for everyone, except perhaps Goose, who appears to have gone on a little vacation!

The simple rhyming text is repeated to add humor and strengthen the rhymes, as well as assist kids in building their vocabulary. Sullivan's goofy pictures show farm animals in various states of dress, splashing in the mud, in the bathtub, and bouncing around in Big Moe, the tractor.

Verdict: This works both as a read-aloud and a read-together and makes a fun addition to any library collection.

ISBN: 9780358313496; Published March 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Purchased for the library