Pssst!

Books written by, illustrated by and both written and illustrated by Adam Rex have been falling into my lap this fall. I just discovered an earlier book, Pssst!, both words and pictures by Adam Rex. 

After our narrator buys her ticket to the zoo, she hears a loud," Pssst!" She looks around and is greeted by a gorilla with a request: a new tire swing. She agrees to help and moves on until she hears another "Pssst!" this time a javalina needs a trash can. The next "Pssst!" is from a bat in a cave asking for lots of flashlights for a hippopotamus. Everywhere she goes in the zoo there is a "Pssst!" and a request: top hats for penguins, bicycle helmets for sloths and a wheelbarrow for a baboon. How is she going to pay for this? With coins a tortoise has collected from the fountains. When she returns with all the things the animals want will they enjoy them?

Most of the words are in balloon bubbles. Despite an AR of 1.1, an average first grader in the first month of school would probably some help reading this book but by mid-year it would be an easy read. The Sonoma County Library has two copies.