After the Buzz Comes the Bee

In this lift-the-flap book from previous collaborators Isadora and Rogge (I Say Please and Thank You), 11 creatures announce their presence, each with their own distinctive noise. Opening the vertical flap on the right-hand side of each spread reveals the sounding-off being, which is greeted by a member of the book’s preschool cast, portrayed with various skin tones and hair textures. Alongside the titular bee, favorite farm (“After the baa-baa-baa...// come the sheep”) and woodland animals and insects appear, as do a few less well-known sound/animal pairs (“After the ah-ah-ah...// come the sloths”). In the penultimate spread, a group of children stand attentively in a starry, full moon–lit night to hear an owl hooting, a wonderful surprise following nine spreads with bright white backgrounds. And the final frame literally brings things home, with a child singing a lullaby to a crib-tucked infant. Though portrayals of seemingly East Asian characters border on stereotypical, crisply inked, loosely rendered pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations take place along a single plane, generally placing the reader at the child characters’ eye level and enabling audiences to savor the animals’ irresistible appearance and the children’s quiet poise—which the animals clearly appreciate—in the wake of each sound’s reveal. Ages 2–5. (Apr.)