I Scream, Ice Cream! A Book of Wordles

Rosenthal (Wumbers) expands her library of alphabetical and numerical wordplay books with a clever collection of “wordles,” homophonic words and phrases. When accompanied by Bloch’s (My Snake Blake) ebullient ink-scrawl drawings, the wordles make off-kilter picture stories. Some are simple (“Icy! Aye, sea!” shout pirates adrift in arctic waves), while others are startlingly elaborate. “Sorry, no more funnel cakes,” explains a vendor to a line of amusement-park customers headed by a disappointed, green-faced clown. On the next spread, two elk clutch their abdomens in distress, having wolfed down the last of that vendor’s supply: “Sorry, no more fun... elk aches.” A boy has arrows pointing toward the relevant parts of his trousers—“Pants. Knees.” He’s holding a long leash, and a page turn reveals an exhausted, allergic dog at the other: “Pant... sneeze.” A row of blobby people on parade make “A family affair”; doffing their hats a page later, they reveal wild coiffures, “A family of hair.” Even beginning readers can decode or guess many of the wordless, and they will love Bloch’s drawings—or are they “block straw wings”? Ages 5–up. Author’s agent: Amy Rennert, Amy Rennert Agency. (May)