Say What?

by Angela DiTerlizzi, Joey Chou (Illustrator)

Overview

With an interactive text and bright, playful illustrations, explore what baby animals really mean when they make their adorable baby animal sounds.

When a lion says ROAR,
does he really mean MORE?
When a cow says MOO,
does she really mean YOU?

How do we know what animals say when they say what they say with their sounds everyday? With an interactive text and bright, playful illustrations, Angela DiTerlizzi and Joey Chou explore what baby animals really mean when they make their adorable baby animal sounds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416986942
Publisher:	Beach Lane Books
Publication date:	07/12/2011
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Angela DiTerlizzi is a mom, wife, and author who loves writing books for children. Her picture books include Some Pets, Some Bugs, Baby Love, and Just Add Glitter. She and her husband, bestselling author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, reside with their daughter in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Joey Chou is the illustrator of Say What? by Angela DiTerlizzi and the upcoming Giraffe Rescue Company by Evan Sagerman. He lives in sunny Glendale, California, where he enjoys drawing furry monsters and talking animals, and he finds lots of inspiration by living in a city filled with strange and interesting people who have all sorts of colorful things to say. Visit him at JoeyArt.com.

Editorial Reviews

"They say what they say/ in their own silly way,/ when they say what they say/ with their sounds every day." Chou's stylish artwork adds punch to DiTerlizzi's (the Adventure of Meno series) meditation on the real meaning of animal sounds. Chou's wide-eyed creatures live just like humans, using cellphones and raiding the fridge. "When a lion says roar,/ does he really mean more?" wonders DiTerlizzi, as a harassed-looking lion father brings another box of bath toys to his son (he's the one doing the roaring). "When a horse says neigh,/ does she really mean hay?" she asks, for which Chou supplies a spread of two horses dressed in cowboy outfits, making hay angels in the stubble on a sunny field. Deep blues and yellows make the pages glow, and almost every spread highlights a loving parent-child dynamic. DiTerlizzi's jazzy verse translations of animal sounds work well, though she backs away a bit at the end—"What animals say, we really don't know." Chou, on the other hand, gives his imagination free rein. Ages 2–5. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"After reading Say What? kids will be yelling, ‘Roar!' For those who don’t speak Lion, this translates to, “More!” - Lane Smith, New York Times bestselling author/illustrator and co-creator of the Caldecott
Honor-winning classic, The Stinky Cheese Man


"For preschoolers who enjoy language play, this opens up whole new opportunities for communication."—Kirkus Reviews

“When an author says ‘Wonderful,’ does she really mean, ‘I wish I’d thought of it!’? You betcha! This is the perfect toddler book.”—Jane Yolen, author of the New York Times bestselling How Do Dinosaurs? series

"DiTerlizzi's jazzy verse translations of animal sounds work well...Chou...gives his imagination free rein."
—Publishers Weekly

"With bright, vivid colors, endearing animals, and plenty of delightful details, this picture book is sure to find an appreciative audience."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

PreS-Gr 1—A freckle-faced boy wonders how he should interpret the sounds animals make. "When a cow says MOO,/does she really mean WHO?/When a lion says ROAR,/does he really mean MORE?" The anthropomorphized animals in the full-bleed digital illustrations are shown interacting as a parent and child would. A mother snake kisses her baby, and a father and daughter horse make "snow angels" in a field of hay. A short tongue-twisting musing near the middle of the story helps segue to the loving message the boy communicates to his mom. With bright, vivid colors, endearing animals, and plenty of delightful details, this picture book is sure to find an appreciative audience.—Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada

School Library Journal

A small boy wonders and speculates what animals might mean by their traditional sounds.

The stylized animals shown using megaphones and paper-cup telephones on the cover reappear inside fully clothed, behaving in familiar human ways and using a wide variety of communications devices. A lion cub roars for more toys in the bathtub. A duckling quacks for a snack in front of an open refrigerator. A small snake hisses for a kiss from her mother. Simple rhyming couplets and a repeating chorus, "They say what they say / in their own silly way, / when they say what they say / with their sounds every day" carry the narrative, which concludes with the child's "I do love you so!" to his mother. Full-bleed, double-page, digitally rendered illustrations in slightly muted retro colors use a flattened perspective to show a variety of parent/child interactions. These offer some imaginative activities, such as identifying cloud shapes and making hay angels, and include a range of settings. Perceptive observers will notice humorous details: a baby lamb with a pacifier, a bird birthday party with a cat piñata, an old-fashioned stand telephone in a booth.

For preschoolers who enjoy language play, this opens up whole new opportunities for communication.(Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews