cover image Thump, Thump, Rat-A-Tat-Tat

Thump, Thump, Rat-A-Tat-Tat

Gene Baer. HarperCollins Publishers, $14 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-06-020361-0

The ``festive colors'' and ``flashing brass'' of a marching band appear before the reader in this foot-stomping parade of color. ``Big as ants'' and ``loud as crickets,'' the tiny marchers climb off a yellow bus. The reader hears the band's ``distant drums/chirping horns/THUMP, THUMP/THUMP, THUMP.''Colors and sounds grow larger and louder as the band grows closer (``big as birds/loud as lions/THUMP, THUMP/THUMP, THUMP''), then gradually fade away. Baer's crescendo and de-crescendo of words is amiably matched by the typesize and by Ehlert's stylized marchers. The design is crisp and inventive; abstract but definable bandmembers made of rectangles and circles in primary colors step smartly across vivid pages. Readers will want to cheer for this rat-a-tat-tat parade. Ages 2-6. (Sept.)