“The big, bold speech balloons filled with irresistible nonsense words make this a great choice for shared read-alouds.”

“Be preapared for “Oobly snooby!” and “Cloggen Zoggen Itsyboggen!” after the book is finished.” “With its suburban setting and palette of pale blues and eau de nil, there’s a subtle retro feel to this celebration of playful remarks.” These playful juxtapositions bring visual energy to the story, which is, after all, about delighting in difference.” The animals, with the simple look of silk-screened figures, are heavily outlined in black, and appear superimposed on their backgrounds. In a few spreads she brings beautifully subtle coloration to her sunset skies.

“We’ll mind our peeps and coos!” one bird vows, while another laments, “Lost caws.” Using pencil, charcoal and ink, with digitally applied color, Portis (“Not a Box”) gives her illustrations a layered look, with contrasting expanses of flat color and more nuanced dappled and shaded areas describing trees, grass and shrubbery. “Portis has a clever ear: She finds many little puns to keep the story light and witty. “Froodle’’ is a light little gem of a book, a freeing book about finding your own voice.

At one point, when the birds have all begun to change their tune, the book flips sideways, changing our perspective, too. Her pictures are clear and bright, her palette here the palette of a summer’s day. In “Froodle’’ even the sharp black outline of a red bird gives character and meaning. “I want to live in Antoinette Portis’s world, where a stick is “Not a Stick,’’ a box “Not a Box’’ (to cite two award-winning titles), and where birds can suddenly change their calls from “peep” to “froodle sproodle.” Portis has honed her skills, both in words and images, to the finest point. “… a wonderful read-aloud, laugh-out-loud book.” “Portis, whose Not a Box proposed alternative uses for a cardboard cube and whose A Penguin Story imagined how Antarctic birds regard non-wintry colors, delights in ‘What if?’ questions.” “The creator of A Penguin Story (2009) returns with another imaginative solution to monotony and predictability in the natural world… “The neighborhood was never the same,” the narrator reports, and neither will be the charmed listeners and readers of this cheerful invitation to invention.”

“Portis’ fun story is filled with humor and silly rhyming words that both children and adults will appreciate.” Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast Author Q&A (forthcoming) Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel Summer Reading Preview, 5/19/14 Kirkus Reviews, April 2014, STARRED REVIEW