School Library Journal Review

PreS-K-A mother asks, "Willy John Jones, are you in the tub?/I'm waiting to hear you splash and scrub." Her son is in the bathroom, watching a duck, turtles, seal, an octopus, and a porpoise playing in his claw-foot tub. As they hop out, Willy gets in, aided in scrubbing by the helpful purple octopus. Once he is clean, he brings his toys into the tub, all of which resemble the animals of the initial pages. The call-and-response text is delivered in a tight rhyme scheme, and youngsters will delight in sharing Willy's adventure completely out of his mother's sight, with the action portrayed in the pictures but not in the text. Several captivating spreads feature graduated pages that help to advance the story. This winning celebration of imagination and bathtime is a worthy companion to Peter S's's Dinosaur! (Greenwillow, 2000), Julia Jarman's Big Red Tub (Scholastic, 2004), and Andrew Pelletier's The Amazing Adventures of Bathman! (Dutton, 2005).-Laura Scott, Farmington Community Library, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.