Horn Book (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 1992)

n an echo of 'Baa Baa Black Sheep,' a kitten asks various animals about their offspring ('Quack quack, white duck, have you any ducklings? / Yes kitty, yes kitty, four fluffy ducklings'). An uncertain palette (the 'brown' is tinged with red and yellow, and the 'white' is just plain yellow) and a clunky text mar this color/counting/animal baby/animal sounds concept book.

ALA Booklist (Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 1992)

In a large-size counting book that introduces the numbers 1 to 10, a kitten approaches 10 farm animals and inquires about their offspring: Moo moo, brown cow, have you any calves?'Yes kitty, yes kitty, one spotted calf.' Bonner's colorful, friendly looking animals fill the pages nicely, each representing a different color--pink pig, red dog, blue goose, pink-and-yellow rainbow trout, etc. The creatures are, however, hard to distinguish when set against similarly shaded backgrounds. Each question and answer is presented on a single spread, and children will find it easy to identify and count the animal babies in the large pictures. (Reviewed June 15, 1992)

School Library Journal

Pre-Gr 1-- A ginger-colored kitten asks various animals if they have any babies in this seemingly simple concept book. A brown cow has one calf, a black sheep has two lambs, a yellow goat has three kids, etc. ; the kitten greets each animal by its trademark moo or baa or bleat. The large print is repetitive and easy to read. Gleaming watercolors completely fill each doubled-paged spread, giving such a lush feel to the book that its sheer attractiveness may captivate readers before its weaknesses become apparent. The blurred, impressionistic outlines of the animals and their mottled coloration make it far more challenging for fledgling counters than the similar, yet more successful, Brown Bear , Brown Bear (Holt, 1992) by Bill Martin, Jr . Nonetheless, Bonner's artwork is very appealing. --Anna DeWind, Milwaukee Public Library

Kirkus Reviews

``Baa baa, black sheep, have you any lambs? Yes kitty, yes kitty, two woolly lambs.'' From one brown cow to ten rainbow trout fry, Wood rehearses numbers, colors, and animals' names and voices in a repetitive text that will help young listeners learn, though it is not particularly imaginative. In the double spread illustrations, on the other hand, Bonner takes some unusual risks: the colors of his animals are strikingly close to their background—e.g., the orange hen and her yellow chicks are superimposed on a pale orange that might be derived by mixing the two. The result is arrestingly monochromatic compositions in which the animals are still recognizable and pleasingly lively. The appealing kitten who asks the questions ties it all together. Nice. (Picture book. 1-6)"