Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?/the Foot (Bright and Early Books and Read-Along Cassette Library)

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Summary: Dr. Seuss introduces young readers to sounds and adjectives
Review: This is a pair of classic Dr. Seuss Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners that focus on some of the FUNdamentals of reading. Mr. Brown is a creation of Dr. Seuss, who makes Old MacDonald look like the strong silent type. That is because as we learn in "Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises," Mr. Brown can do more than "moo" like a cow, "buzz" like a bee, and go "hoo hoo hoo hoo" like an owl. Mr. Brown can go "pop" like a cork, "eek eek" like a squeaky shoe, and even make the sound of a hippopotamus chewing gum. One of the reasons this is a popular book with beginning readers is not only because kids enjoy making all these noises, but also because parents and other adults get to embarrass themselves in making the sounds on these pages come alive (or a reasonable facsimile thereof). Trying to make the sound of the rain or a big cat drinking is not too hard, but doing a very hard noise to make like the sound of lighting (which is a "splatt" apparently) or a noise like a goldfish kiss ("pip") might be pushing the envelope too much. Of course, you can make up any sound you want when you are reading this to very young children. But you have to keep in mind that the whole point of these Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners is to inspire them to read on their own one day.

Of course "The Foot Book" is about not only the foot (singular) but also feet (plural). There are more references to feet (plural) than to feet (singular), if you happen to pay attention to such things (which, apparently, I did). But the key part of this book are all the adjectives that Dr. Seuss comes up with for all those feet. This happens mostly in terms of oppositional pairs such as right and left, wet and dry, high and low, front and back, etc. Of course sometimes rhyme comes into play as well, such as when we go from small feet to big feet and then to pig feet. The illustrations all feature the strange hairy creatures that populate the imagination of Dr. Seuss, although you will see a pair of rather normal looking kids in the mix as well. Did you ever stop to think that Dr. Seuss is probably the most influential poet of his generation? He is certainly the most imitated, and behind all these silly rhymes was a deep desire to get kids to read. Once your beginning reader has read "The Foot Book," be sure to have them check out the sequel, "Fox in Sox."