YOUR NOSE!

A sing-along assurance that this little fox is totally special.

Originally included on Blue Moo, Boynton’s 2007 album of children’s music, this board-book version hits all the right notes. The fact that it lampoons Neal Sedaka’s “Angel Eyes” will no doubt go right over the heads of young children—and possibly even their parents—but they can hear Sedaka himself singing this version via a link on the publisher’s website (noted on the copyright page). That version is slightly longer than the board-book text, but nevertheless, children and adults will happily sing along. Several animals rendered in Boynton’s distinctive style make appearances. Nose-to-nose pairs of rhinos, bears, ducks, pigs, and bunnies accompany the species-inclusive line “everyone can find a way to happiness, I suppose.” But a doting fox and its kit are the book’s main characters. Their expressive eyes make their mutual delight clear, and their noses are very much in evidence. The refrain—“YOUR NOSE!”—is set in a larger font, helping even young children start to recognize the words. This unabashed celebration of this little fox’s uniqueness and the grown-up fox’s unconditional admiration is completely sincere and sure to be appreciated by toddlers.

Boynton knows how to please young kids while also entertaining the adults who will inevitably be asked to “read it again.”