cover image The Pop-Up, Pull-Tab, Playtime House That Jack Built: Pop-Up, Pull-Tab, Playtime Book

The Pop-Up, Pull-Tab, Playtime House That Jack Built: Pop-Up, Pull-Tab, Playtime Book

Nadine Bernard Westcott. Joy Street Books, $14.95 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-316-93138-0

All is calm as Jack lies sleeping in his house--that is, until a rat helps himself to the wedge of cheese left on Jack's kitchen table. When the cat chases the rat and the dog worries the cat, this cumulative verse takes off. The ensuing chain of events leads a cast of bouncy, cavorting animals and humans to converge en masse upon a startled Jack and the house that he constructed. Westcott's ( I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly ) bright palette renders appropriately energetic figures, whose actions are further enhanced by a number of tabs, flaps and pop-ups, and whose simple, pencil-point eyes and tiny mouths are enormously expressive. The rolling green hills of the countryside, dotted with friendly-looking black-and-white cows, are an inviting backdrop for this spirited romp. Ages 4-8. (May)