Hello, friend an our book today is Eek!: A Noisy Journey From A to Z by Julie Larios and Julie Paschkis, a unique alphabet book of onomatopoeias.

When a little mouse plucks a flower and takes an appreciative sniff, he lets out a polite sneeze (“achoo”), which disturbs the bee who was hiding within the petals (“buzz”). As the story unfolds further, each letter is represented by a different “noisy” word – “fwump”, “plop”, “vroom”, etc. – popping up as a different element of the rollicking and unpredictable story of the mouse and his flower unfolds.

Silly fun. Exploring an alphabet’s worth of sound words is a clever twist on the typical ABC fare, and the choices of onomatopoeic words range nicely from noises, animal calls, and even emotional exclamations (a weeping raccoon wails out a “maaaah!”, for instance). The colorful illustrations introduce an entire cast of animals and settings that flow nicely from one to the next, giving a good sense of cause and effect and allowing readers to interpret the story for themselves through context clues. The folk-inspired artwork is distinctive and eye-catching, if occasionally busy. The length is great, and JJ really enjoyed this one. A fun way to explore the alphabet and sounds, and we liked it – Baby Bookworm approved!

(A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)