It’s Monday (again?  How did that happen? I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!) I’m submitting this post to The Children’s Bookshelf which happens every Monday.  Please go check it out.  You’ll find lots of people talking about children’s books they love.  I’m rather impressed with this site.

The Short:  My son is enamored with this book.  He pulled it off the shelf himself on three different occasions yesterday and three different occasions today.  Usually we read one book after the other (and every now and then he asks for a book to be read again and again), but this book has been stuck on repeat.  Fortunately, it has a fun and easy rhythm and beautiful illustrations.  We highly recommend this picture book.

The Long:  We picked this book up from the library.  It was in their new acquisition section. I was very surprised by this book.  At first glance I assumed that because of the title and because of the cover that this book was going to be another silly book of sounds and rhymes.  I wasn’t all that enthusiastic about reading the book, but after reading it once my opinion completely changed.  While onomatopoeia abounds in this book, it has a great rhythm to it that makes it easy to read and enjoy this book again and again.

The watercolor illustrations give the book a Norman Rockwell dream-like quality/flashback feel to them.  I feel like I’m looking at paintings in a gallery.  The illustrator says on his bio in the back of the book that his paintings are inspired by Thomas Hart Benton and once I saw the works, it was very clear.  The illustrations and words work very well together making it a great experience for both me and my son.  The author and illustrator took an overused and overdone topic (farm animals and sounds) into something fresh and fun. This book was such a pleasant surprise.

There’s also nothing to change or edit for my two-year-old son.  If you’re a vegetarian/vegan or do not eat pork there is a line that says, “Ham pop-pops in the frying pan.”

In reading this book to my son today, I was surprised to see that my son already has most of this book memorized.  If I stop reading at one part of the sentence, he’s able to complete it.  Pretty nifty.  He’s my kid, but I’m still impressed.

This book is based off of the author’s family farm.  For whatever reason, this makes me sentimental and I like the book all the more.

The illustrator has a blog which you can check out at http://bradsneed.com/blog/news.  Which is where I learned of the coolest Christmas present for my son:  Marblespark.com  They personalize picture books that are illustrated by Brian Sneed.  So cool!  You can even enter in your child’s info and they give you a mock-up of what the picture book will look like.  I’m thrilled that such a thing exists.  (Truly, I have no association with this company whatsoever.  I’m just impressed with the illustrator and the idea of a personalize picture book.)  I know what I’m getting my son for Christmas.

Where Obtained: Library

FTC Disclosures:  Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” If you click on the link and purchase the book, I will receive an affiliate commission.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Facts:

Cock-a-doodle-doo, Creak, Pop-pop, Moo 

Author: Jim Mylesworth

Illustrator:  Brad Sneed

Publisher:  Holiday House

Publication Date:  April 1st, 2012

Ages: 2+

Length: 32 pages

ISBN-13:  978-0-8234-2356-9

Please remember to stop by The Children’s Bookshelf and check out lots of other great kidlit recommendations.  Thanks for reading!