MUNG-MUNG

“What kind of animal says “Mung-Mung, BoBo, Gav-Gav, Wow-Wow,” or “Woof-Woof?” Fold out the page to find it’s a dog. Successive gatefolds hide farm or household animals, but the onomatopoeic words from their mouths come from languages as diverse as Korean, Turkish, Swedish, and Hindi. This has much in common with “Who Says a Dog Goes Bow-Wow?,” by Hank De Zutter (1993). Suse MacDonald’s illustrations echoed Eric Carle for that one and they were the highlight. Here, Newbery-winner Park’s text is important but not too exciting. Bidga’s lightly lined, pastel illustrations are beautiful and surprisingly lively, full of interesting type faces for each of the words and accompanied by tiny, but clear labels for the language of each. Not all toddlers will grasp the concept of different languages, but all will enjoy guessing what animal comes next. And it’ll have them nuff-nuffing all the way home. (Picture book. 2-7)