Customer Reviews

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book deserves many more than five stars for its great ability to engage your child with books at a very young age! With this head start, you can expect to help nurture a lifelong love of books and reading.

Dr. Seuss must have known that children respond more to noises than to words. So this book emphasizes noises. It also provides a wonderful opportunity to act. The facial expressions, gestures, and body movements you make will create a strong impression. Soon your baby will begin to imitate the sounds. Imitating the word syllables and words is seldom far behind.

"Oh, the wonderful things

Mr. Brown can do!

He can go like a cow

He can go Moo Moo"

Sections all start off like that. Then they end with the encouragement to imitate:

"Mr. Brown can do it.

How about you?"

You can point to your child then, and repeat the sound with a nice smile.

Here are the animals or objects, and the sounds they make that are in the book:

bee -- "Buzz Buzz"

cork -- "Pop Pop"

horse feet -- "Klopp Klopp Klopp"

squeaky shoe -- "Eek Eek"

rooster -- "Cock a Doodle Doo"

owl -- "Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo"

rain -- "Dibble Dibble Dibble Dopp"

train -- "Choo Choo Choo Choo"

butterfly -- "Whisper Whisper"

horn -- "Blurp Blurp Blurp Blurp"

big cat drinking -- "Slurp Slurp Slurp Slurp"

clock -- "Tick Tock"

hand on a door -- "Knock Knock"

egg in frying pan -- "Sizzle Sizzle"

hippopotamus chewing gum -- "Grum Grum"

goldfish kiss -- "Pip!"

thunder -- "Boom Boom Boom"

lightning -- "Splatt Splatt Splatt"

The sounds are repeated as partial and total lists in several places. These repetitions can be made very humorous in your reading and cause gales of baby giggles.

Except for the lists, there is a beautiful large illustration to help your baby or child tie the sound to an animal or object.

A good way to enhance your baby's enjoyment of the book is to notice what sounds your baby seems to like already. For example, most babies like low, comfort sounds (in the moo moo range). You can add those sounds and your own drawings (or photographs) to go with them. You could have a refrigerator go Hum Hum Hum, or a car go Wrooom Wrooom. Your own ideas will be better than mine, I'm sure.

Have a wonderful time being a parent, and be sure to take the time to enjoy the pleasures of books like this one with your baby!

Out of the dozens of board books we have been given and purchased for our infant, she enjoys this one best of all. Our four month old enjoys sitting on our laps, looking at the bright illustrations, and listening to us make animal sounds. A fun, rhythmic book which baby can grab and really sink his or her gums into. I highly recommend this book, along with Sanda Boynton's two books "Barnyard Dance" and "Moo, Baa, La La La!" books for infants and toddlers. My recommendation for older kids is Why Some cats are rascals

To those reviewers bashing the board book version, I say: get over it! The board book version makes it possible to hold a squirming infant and read and turn the pages at the same time. Accordingly, the baby is exposed to the process of reading at a time when it would otherwise be prohibitive. My five month old loves this book, clearly tries to mimic the sounds of Mr. Brown, and smiles beyond belief as I loudly moo, whoo, buzz, and tick-tock. I think above all else, Suess would want youngsters exposed to his works as early as possible, abridged or otherwise.

This has become our 15 month-old's favorite book, and she has even learned to do one or two of the noises. I read it to her at least 3 times a day. Of course, as a parent, you will be obligated to have a go at some of Mr. Brown's noises, and Mr. Brown is a wonder. I fint the Knock and the Splatt problematic, although I'm quite good at the Moo and the Klopp.

I have been reading this book to my son since birth every night. He loves it. He is now 4 months old and loves to help turn the sturdy board book pages. The different noises that Mr. Brown makes are very intriging to babies and it gives them something to try to imitate. He also likes looking at the colorful illustrations in this book. It is one that we will be reading/reciting for years!

This bright and early board book is an abridged edition of a Dr. Seuss classic. The intent seems to have been to create an infant and toddler friendly edition of the book. Unfortunately, the editing was done very poorly. Much of what children seem to perceive at this age is "rhythm and rhyme" - the musicality of spoken language, if you will - not necessarily the story or the words themselves. In the editing process, much of the special "rhythm and rhyme" that makes Dr. Seuss so special was garbled. While some of the "noises" are still fun, much has been lost and this edition isn't half as good as the unabridged (non-board book) version.

If you are looking for a book of "wonderful noises" for young children in a board book format, a better bet would be Sandra Boynton's "Moo Baa La La La" (published by Simon and Schuster and available on www.Amazon.com). Or, wait until your child is a little older and purchase the unedited Dr. Seuss (also available on www.Amazon.com).

Incidentally, Random House decided to publish this edition without acknowledging the fact that it is an abridgement, in clear lettering, on the front outer cover . Other of this company's board books reportedly share the same problem. The legalities notwithstanding, this is certainly a misleading practice, if not outright unethical. Wake up, Random House!

My 14 month old loves this book. She's had it for about 6 months. The rhythm and rhyme are great for language development, and the sounds throughout make it very entertaining to read and listen to.

My son loves this book, and makes most of the sounds as we read it. One of his favourites!

I saw another reviewer complain that this is an abridged version, but for us it is perfect (also, it does note on the inside cover that it is adapted from the original). My daughter loves reading this book and trying to make the noises. For a board book, it is a great size and has held up well.
The bigger version is great for older kids who will not eat/tear/spill stuff on the pages, but this one is great for the little ones. I am not even sure how much more Mr Brown can do, but he does quite a lot in this version! Don't miss it.

My 30 month old loves this book! Some of the sounds he makes spontaneously with the pictures (at times "reading" it independently by making the sounds and gestures we have made up looking at the pictures), and with others he echoes me. He asks for the book by name ("moo") and likes it so much he sleeps with it sometimes. I agree with the other reviewers regarding Sandra Boynton's "Moo, Baa, LaLaLa", which is another of his favorites.