BEACH PARTY!
by Harriet Ziefert & illustrated by Simms Taback
This play rhyme in board book form invites young listeners to sashay like a menagerie of marine life, each one with its own verb: “Can you walk like a penguin? FLIP-FLAP-FLAP! / Slide like a slithering seal? SLIP-SLAP-SLAP!” Taback depicts the animals in characteristic cartoon style, placing them against a clear blue backdrop and all heading, as it turns out, for a swim. A colorful way to get audiences not quite up to the Method exercises in Jean Marzollo’s Pretend You’re a Cat, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (1990), off their duffs to “Walk . . . Slither . . . Dash . . . ” “Dance . . . Scoot . . . Splash!” (Board book. 1-5)