The Barking Ballad: A Bark-Along Meow-Along Book

by Julie Paschkis (Author) Julie Paschkis (Illustrator)

The Barking Ballad: A Bark-Along Meow-Along Book
Reading Level: K − 1st Grade
With a woof and meow and a bow-wow-wow, kids can bark along to this lively, luminously illustrated interactive picture book about a dog and the cat who befriends him. A cheerful dog and kindly kitty became friends true and rare. Bark along to join the ditty of this unlikely pair. When the dog gets hurt and the cat helps him recover, the two become fast friends. And soon, the town is filled with the ballad of a hundred barks--and one small meow.
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Hardcover
$17.99

Kirkus


Publishers Weekly

Paschkis (Delicious!) opens this interactive, interspecies friendship story with instructions: when readers see one of many red circles in the text, they're invited to "yip, arrf, grrr, bow-wow" or otherwise sound off like a dog; a yellow diamond, likewise, cues readers to make like a cat. Enter an abandoned orange-and-white feline, "so swift and small," who cowers in a bush; her anxious face is surrounded by six big rosettes, one of the many folk art-style graphic flourishes that embellish the playful, flat-perspective watercolors. When a rambunctious dog is injured near her hiding place, the cat ministers to him "with tender tongue and gentle love." A friendship blossoms--"If you looked out for one of them, / The pair is what you saw"--and readers are prompted by a page dotted with red circles to offer celebratory barks alongside the duo's many doggie pals. The afterword notes that the text is inspired by a snippet of poetry from 18th-century writer Oliver Goldsmith. Though the resultant heightened language and phrasing ("She hid amidst the bushes low") may take younger readers some getting used to, the opportunity to bark and meow 'til the cows come home is ample compensation. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"[An] interactive, interspecies friendship story . . . the many folk art-style graphic flourishes embellish the playful, flat-perspective watercolors."—Publishers Weekly
Julie Paschkis
Julie Paschkis is a painter, textile designer, and award-winning illustrator and author of many books for children, including Vivid: Poems and Notes about Color; Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, an Américas Award winner and an Orbis Pictus Honor book; Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams by Janet S. Wong, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman; and Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary by Julie Larios, a Boston Globe-Horn Award Honor Book. She lives in Seattle with her husband. Visit her at JuliePaschkis.com.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781534492608
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date
October 05, 2021
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV002070 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Dogs
JUV057000 - Juvenile Fiction | Stories in Verse (see also Poetry)
JUV009110 - Juvenile Fiction | Concepts | Sounds
Library of Congress categories
Cats
Friendship
Dogs
Picture books
Stories in rhyme
Animal sounds

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