Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!: Barnyard Hullabaloo - Hardcover

David Wojtowycz is a bestselling, award-winning author and artist. He studied at Goldsmiths College in London, graduating with a degree in Fine Art. In 1996 David illustrated his first book for children, Rumble in the Jungle, which went on to become an international bestseller. David has gone on to create many more hugely successful children's books, including The Lion Who Wanted to Love, winner of the Red House Book Award, and the bestselling Mad About Minibeasts. David lives in Berlin. Giles Andreae is the author of many top selling award-winning picture books. For Orchard, these include Rumble in the Jungle, Commotion in the Ocean, and I Love My Mummy. However, it is for the international bestseller Giraffes Can't Dance that he is best known. Giles is also the creator of Purple Ronnie, Britain's favourite stickman, and of the artist / philosopher, Edward Monkton. These two ranges of greetings cards, books and merchandise have made Giles the country's top selling living poet and an icon of contemporary popular culture. Giles's other work has included poetry installations for The Natural History Museum and for the Selfridges Millennium windows. He is an ambassador for The Arts Award and Tesco's Ambassador for Books into Schools and Clubs. Giles lives with his wife, Victoria, a children's clothes designer, and their four young children by the river in Oxfordshire.

PreSchool-K-This bright, inviting book introduces a farm's inhabitants. The first spread shows the barnyard from outside the fence, with all the animals that live inside. Then, the pigs, donkey, ducks, and geese and others all introduce themselves through a lively, rhyming, first-person verse and an illustration full of movement and color. The visit ends as night falls, but not before readers meet the nighttime animals. A final two-page spread takes children back outside the fence as the rural denizens go to sleep and the fox sneaks off to hunt prey. Sound words are scattered on some of the pages, a device that might prove somewhat confusing to very young listeners. "Wag! Wag!" appears next to the dog's tail, rather than the sound the animal makes. "Wriggle" and "snuffle" appear for the pigs even though every three-year-old knows a pig says, "oink." And geese are supposed to "honk," not "cackle" or "squawk." Still, these are minor flaws that do not overwhelm the book's many virtues. It has a lively read-aloud text and the clearly drawn, easily identified animals are filled with personality.
Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY
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