Setting a visual story line against two auditory-themed poems from 1966, Jabar (The Big Meow) takes readers into the lives of a family with a new sibling. During the day, the whole world is in an uproar: "Bus honks and bells,/ Dishes and shoes,/ Whirring of tires and/ Crackle of news." Jabar's dense, radiant paintings envision Dad valiantly keeping house and the kids unsuccessfully concentrating on schoolwork while Mom is in the maternity ward. News of the birth comes with "Ringing of telephones,/ whistles and knocks,/ Fire engines screaming,/ Ticking of clocks," and Dad, shown in a close-up against a distorted hallway almost worthy of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, looks appropriately stressed. In the second poem, night has fallen and the family arrives home with the well-swaddled baby just ahead of a snowfall (a welcoming group hug is beautifully distilled into a concert of softly arcing shapes). The late O'Neill's verse now speaks of a world that's dark and hushed ("Curtain flutter,/ Insect whir,/ Distant dog bark,/ Kitten purr"), to which Jabar offers a disarming, highly effective visual counterpoint: the curious older children inadvertently wake the infant, and it's up to Dad to coax everyone back to sleep as the outside world snuggles under a blanket of snow. Jabar's imaginative interpretation of O'Neill's economical verse enhances the poems' evocative power; in turn, the sprightly, childlike pictures take on a deep emotional resonance. Ages 3-6. (Aug.)
