Published by Harry N. Abrams

Summary:  “Don’t put a goat in overalls. Really. I mean it. They tend to eat their overalls. Trust me. I’ve seen it.”  Yet the goat and a couple dozen of her friends are rocking their pants, from jeans to lederhosen to slacks (for yaks).  Each poem is just a few lines long, accompanied by humorous illustrations, making this short enough to easily read in a single sitting.  Prepare yourself for the end: “The bad news? The tailor’s incredibly slow. It takes him forever to stitch and to sew. To let out a pant seam, it could be a year. To add a new zipper, the timeline’s unclear. He fusses and frets over each inch of cloth…The good news? He’s fast for a sloth.” 32 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  Kids will get a kick out of these animals in their pants with impeccably rhymed poems and fun illustrations.  These took me back to A. A. Milne poems of my early childhood.  A perfect introduction to poetry, and for what it’s worth, this is currently #15 on the Goodreads list of Newbery predictions.

Cons:  I almost missed the child saying, “What? You’ve never seen animals in pants?” on the front endpapers, due to the jacket flap covering up most of her.  The good news is, she’s on the back asking the same question about animals in hats, which bodes well for a sequel.