Yawn

Yawns are contagious among people, but what if animals could “catch” yawns, too? Symes employs repeating rhymed verse to show a chain of yawns that pass from a boy to various animals, with a circular die-cut in each spread forming each creature’s gaping mouth. “Sean gave a yawn while sitting on a his mat./ Guess who he gave it to. A scruffy, fluffy...” Readers should easily be able to fill in the missing animal before the answer is revealed on the subsequent spread, and the verse begins anew (“...cat gave a yawn as lazily she purred...”). Sharrat’s bright, eye-catching cartoons and Symes’s bouncy verse should entertain readers on their way to the book’s sleepy, cuddly conclusion. Ages 3–up. (Dec.)