Two things pair to make this book an absolute delight to read: whimsical illustrations and a text that is 100% animal sounds, put together in such a way that they ripple rhythmically off your tongue.  True story: I was having such fun saying all the animal sounds that I had to read the story three times in a row.  The first two times I was having so much fun saying the words, I never got around to looking at the pictures.  But the pictures are quite fun, especially a certain well-placed, high-action double page spread toward the end. 

On a side note, if I were an ESL teacher for children, I'd love to have this book to teach animal names and sounds.

Today's RhyPiBoMo book is My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch by Graeme Base.  An imaginative celebration both of Australian animals and eccentric relatives, it's a fun, poetic read which would probably be better if I spoke with an Australian accent.  

I realized that out of the ten or so children books I have in my current study pile, they all start with a double spread.  Page one therefore is on the left-hand side of the page, an inner title page to its back.  This A4 size book of Graeme Base's is no different.  It starts with double-page spread ink drawing of a lively grandmother, song-bird on her shoulder and map in the background accompanied by four stanzas explaining where the narrator's grandmother comes from and that there isn't much to make the place famous--except his grandmother.  This is followed by wordless, full-color, double-page spread painting that connects to the narration.  The entire book follows this pattern.  A monochromatic ink drawing with 3-5 stanzas followed by a related wordless, colorful, detailed two-page spread.  Whether stippled ink or full color, the pages have a white border less than a centimeter wide with parts of the illustration bleeding past the border and off the page.  Because of the fairly unusual A4 size, the book seems slightly more narrow and tall than your typical children's book.  (A4 is a standard international copy paper size--slightly taller and narrower than the standard U.S. 8.5 x 11 inch paper)