Something Sleeping in the Hall: Poems

Something to shout about, the new I Can Read Book is a virtuoso performance by the esteemed author-illustrator of such diverse treasures as The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, A Space Story (winner of the New York Academy of Sciences award), and others. Pithy, amusing rhymes express a child's imaginings about lots of animals, large and small. ""The lion looks extremely proud./ But when he eats,/ he chews too loud.'' ``A bear went walking/ down the street/ and everyone that bear did meet/ that bear did greet/ and also eat./ How sweet.'' Color-tinged drawings illustrate the fanciful poems in a harmonious spirit, perhaps most memorably when the dreamy narrator, a little girl, says, ``I would like to have a pet,/ any kind at all./ Something big,/ something small,/ something sleeping in the hall/ would be just fine./ I would like to have a pet./ Will you be mine?'' (48)