Dance

"Once upon a time/ there was a tiny little chick/ who went down to the dance hall/ just to get some kicks." The bad news is that Chickie Baby just hatched yesterday and doesn't know how to dance. The good news is that the dance hall is filled with jazzy, jiving animals eager to help the baby chick learn. A three-piece band of rhinoceroses (called The Rhinyls, naturally) keeps the beat while hula-skirted hippos show Chickie Baby how to shake and shimmy, alligators do the Gator Mashed Potater and bowtie-clad pigs demonstrate the Crazy Piggy Tap: "Tippity, tippity,/ tippity, tippity,/ tippity, tippity,/ TAP!"

It's hard to decide what is the best part of Matthew Van Fleet's (Tails; Dog; Heads) extra-sturdy interactive board book. Is it the toe-tapping rhymes, the adorable pastel-colored animals or the big tabs that, when pulled, make the gator's arms swing, the hippopotamus's skirt swish and the Bouncy Bunny's feet "hippy hippy HOP!" behind clear plastic windows? Preschoolers will chant along with a menagerie of wild and barnyard animals as they "boom, baba, BOOM!" and "shimmy,/ shimmy,/ SHAKE!" until the final spread when a partial page folds back to reveal a pop-up grand finale and curtain call. The message to Chickie Baby--and to the reader--is, "You can dance!" Fans of Barnyard Dance (Sandra Boynton) and Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp (Carol Diggory Shields and Scott Nash) will do the Busy Beaver Bop in their joy at being able to add another happy, energetic dance book to their repertoire. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

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