Only in English does the dog say ``Bow-wow''; Finns, Turks, Russians, and Poles agree it's ``How-how,'' while a dozen other languages come up with even more transliterations, as different as ``Ar-ar'' and ``Mong-mong.'' Varying his introductory question only slightly (``What does a lamb say?'' ``How does a cat sound?''), De Zutter lists sounds attributed to 16 animals, in several tongues for each.
It's quite interesting: nine agree that cows say ``Moo,'' while even the variants aren't very different; for other creatures--chickens, horses, birds--the diversity can be enormous.
The brief verse that introduces the lists is laughably awkward, but serves its explanatory purpose; Caldecott Honor medalist MacDonald adopts Eric Carle's tissue collage technique (crediting him in her dedication) to create handsomely designed, vibrant creatures, crisply silhouetted on a clean white ground.
There's some disparity between format and subject appeal
