Eek!: A Noisy Journey from A to Z
by Julie Larios and Julie Paschkis; illus. by Julie Paschkis
Preschool    Peachtree    32 pp.    g
9/20    978-1-68263-169-0    $16.99

This entertainingly madcap alphabet adventure is wordless, save for the onomatopoeia and animal sounds that accompany the letters of the alphabet on display. It all starts with a mouse, who sneezes (A is for “achoo”) after smelling a big, beautiful daisy. From that flower flies a bee (B is for “bzzz”), while a bird “chirps,” and — uh-oh — here comes a large bell, hanging off a cat (D is for “ding-a-ling”). So it goes, with the far-right recto of each spread often giving us a hint as to what’s coming with the page-turn. Paschkis provides delicate drawings of well-dressed animals (in clothes with intriguing, eye-catching patterns) who (mostly) move across the pages from right to left, as if we are watching a play unfold. The solidly colored backgrounds pop with eye-catching hues, and though things get hectic — there’s a bicycle wreck that results in an injured raccoon, a musical parade, and a pig careening through the V and W spread in a sleek blue convertible — Paschkis keeps the compositions from becoming cluttered. Viewers will delight in narrating the action, particularly given the boisterous sounds occurring all throughout the book, and in spotting and naming all the animals that appear. The ending reveals the recipient of that first spread’s daisy — a lion — and never fear: the mouse falls asleep safely and snugly, because Z is for “ZzZzZ.”

From the January/February 2021 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.