Scenes from an international street carnival unfold—literally—on the pages of this picture book, each fold-out, three-page spread revealing another element of the action in order to set up the response of varied children in their native tongues. “Geshmak!” (Yiddish) Leckah! (German) Yum! (English)” are the equivalent words on the first-page spread as children eat ice cream and watermelon. “Wow-wow (Chinese) “Hai-hai (Hindi) Boo-hoo (English)” is the response pages later when the ice cream cones have fallen victim to an accident involving a juggler, a spice cart, and a little black dog, all of which have been pictured on the pages in between. The crayon and ink illustrations create a storyline for the brief, multilingual text. Of course, that story has a happy conclusion. “Eviva! (Italian) Hwan-ho! (Vietnamese) Hooray!” The authors provide a note on the challenge of translating sounds into words. (Ages 3–7)

In this multilingual guessing game, the authors present “people sounds” from languages around the world. For example, on one double-page spread, readers learn how to say “Yikes” in Yoruba, Spanish, Polish, and Japanese. The facial expressions of the children in the illustrations help readers guess the English word even before opening the accompanying foldout, which presents the English version. As a bonus, observant readers discover a story told through the foldouts: a little dog creates turmoil and excitement as it travels along a street—evoking a wide variety of people sounds in a host of different locations. ALA Notable Book. mm