Inside a Barn in the Country, A Rebus Read-Along Story

In a brightly illustrated humorous tale that combines lively rhymes and rebus puzzles, one small mouse proceeds to wake up a entire barn, and a quiet night becomes raucous.

PreSchool-Grade 1?From start to finish, this cumulative tale written in the style of "This Is the House That Jack Built." The story line is simple, presenting first a barn full of sleeping animals and then, as a cat begins to chase a mouse, the unique sound each creature makes as it is startled awake. Small full-color rebus cartoons of the animals accumulate on each page, beginning with the mouse and ending with the 10 featured creatures. Each page of text is faced by a full-page illustration of the action. All of the characters are ping-pong-ball eyed and open mouthed, reflecting the general chaos that develops. When all their noises finally wake the farmer, he tells them to go back to sleep; the last page shows the rambunctious cat about to pounce on an owl and disturb the peace again. The rhyme and rhythm are plain, and the story proceeds a bit too logically, but Arnold's colorful artwork is well defined and comical enough to appeal to young children.?Lee Bock, Brown County Public Libraries, Green Bay, WI
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Here is the mouse that squeaked in the hay and woke up the horse that whinnied neigh"-the formula is familiar in this tale of a Babel-like barn, but Capucilli and Arnold give their work plenty of extra bounce. Kids will happily mimic the clamorous barks and clucks, moos and cock-a-doodle-doos as more and more animals wake up and join the chorus; and youngest readers will especially enjoy the tiny rebuses that appear in place of text for each animal that is mentioned. Arnold's (The Roly-Poly Spider; My Working Mom) lush cartoons of bug-eyed beasts convey the madcap action. His rebuses add touches of red-orange, midnight blue and dandelion yellow to the black-and-white text. Ages 3-6.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3-5. Capucilli has adopted the familiar cadence of the cumulative "This Is the House That Jack Built" for her lively barnyard rebus that begins and ends "inside a barn in the country." What fits between the beginning and end is part poetry, part puzzle game, and part tool for learning the sounds animals make. On the left-hand page is the rebus, which gradually integrates the story's animal characters. The right-hand pages feature humorous color illustrations, with a bit more of the verse. There's a lot going on, but the thoughtful design will help children keep everything straight, and Arnold's lively pictures, filled with exaggerated, bug-eyed, cartoonlike characters and melodrama, should make this a childhood favorite. Stephanie Zvirin