WHAT SOUND IS MORNING?

Each day begins with riotous noise. Listen!

As sunrise’s gentle rays set the landscape ablaze, a new day is ushered in with a harmonious aural feast. Cue the ante-meridiem orchestra for the melodies of birdsong, yawning dogs, buzzing alarm clocks, clicking light switches, gurgling babies, whistling wind, crowing roosters, the cacophony of zooming traffic, and much more. This sweet, simple story will awaken young listeners’ imaginations to a world of early–a.m. wonders. The economic prose, occasionally rendered in rhyme and near rhyme, flows gently and well and will help kids happily recognize what goes on before and after they awaken. The book makes a fine springboard into laptime, classroom, and library-programming activities, as youngsters can be challenged to identify and/or illustrate morning noisemakers they’re familiar with in their homes and neighborhoods. Bold illustrations burst from the pages and are filled with eye-popping pinks, blues, yellows, greens, reds, purples, and other hues; pre-dawn dark colors lighten and dissipate as the day proceeds. People’s skin tones are primarily nonrealistic, though one woman is shown with dark-brown skin. A wonderful image accompanying the charming turn of phrase “Today is a melody still to be written, / today is a tune no one’s heard before” depicts a five-lined “staff” of electric wires with birds resembling musical notes perched upon them.

Children will raise a loud cheer for this morning story.