cover image Hand Rhymes

Hand Rhymes

. Dutton Books, $15.99 (31pp) ISBN 978-0-525-44201-1

A followup to Brown's warmly embraced Finger Rhymes offers 14 games to play, performing the actions in jaunty poems that are illustrated by brightly colored and bouncy pictures of kids, kittens, snowmen and other major figures in children's lives. Nestled on a parent's lap, a toddler listens to the verses and imitates the gestures in sketches accompanying the lines. Hands whirling, fists forming circles, fingers pointing to eyes, etc., express the merriment in ""The Snowman'': ``Roll him and roll him until he is big./ Roll him until he is fat as a pig./ He has two eyes and a hat on his head./ He'll stand there all night,/While we go to bed.'' A caterpillar's metamorphosis, a bunny hop, goblins, fighting monkeys and other attractions add up to a fun fest. (26)