Gobble, Growl, Grunt

by Peter Spier

Illustrations of over six hundred animals accompanied by the sounds they make.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Fiction

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Peter Spier has established himself as one of the most gifted illustrators in this county. His Noah's Ark was the 1978 Caldecott Award winner, while The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night was a Caldecott Honor book in 1962. The firs two books in his widely acclaimed Mother Goose Library, London Bridge Is Falling Down! and To Market! To Market! were winner and runner-up respectively for the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. The Erie Canal and Noah's Ark both won Christopher Awards, while Gobble, Growl, Grunt received Honorable Mention in the first Children's Science Book Award program, sponsored by the New York Academy of Science.

Born and educated in Amsterdam, Mr. Spier came to New York in 1952 after serving in the Royal Dutch Navy and working for a number of years as a reporter for Elsevier's Weekly, Holland's largest magazine. He has illustrated over a hundred books and has contributed a series of murals to the H. F. Du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful book, my children would have loved this when they were small! So many detailed animal illustrations with the noises they make, absolutely beautiful. If I had read an actual book this may have been a 5 star, too much detail to appreciate on a tablet.

Read on open library.

[Abigail Bristow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Baby/board & Interactive Book
Awards: None
Audience: I would say that this book should be used for ages 0-2 (babies) as this does not have any definite text, rather just sounds for the reader to produce that match the animals shown on the page (hence the interactive genre) and this is perfect for the baby years because the pages are thick and board-like (the reason why its also a baby/board book genre)

A. I know this book fits this category due to its thick board-like pages and limited text with pages dominated by the illustrations to cater to babies. The sounds the reader will make will provide a delightful experience for the baby as well.

B. A visual element I found noteworthy in the book was the composition. The arrangement of the letters depicting sounds were placed right beside the illustrated animals which were depicted as "jumping" "crawling", "laying", "sitting", "running", etc all over the pages of the book. The proximity of the letters being close to the animals helped the reader understand that the sound created was intended for the animal it is placed beside.

C. I would use this book reading one-on-one with a baby as it does not have any text to truly be "read" and you simply show the child the pages and make the noises. It would only be with one child thought because the book is to small to show to an entire group for a "read aloud" format. This would serve as mostly an enjoyment reading but also could be used to introduce the different types of animals and sounds that match those animals.

D. A question for this book at the REMEMBER Level of Blooms Taxonomy could be: "What sound did the cow make?"
- Answer: "MMMOOOOO-OO"

[Luisa Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Animals and their sounds, as only Peter Spier can do!

Ages: 3 - 7

**Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it!

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[Bryce Hall]

"Gobble, Growl, Grunt" is very similar to "Old Macdonald Had a Farm". This book covers many different animals and the noises each of them makes. It covers animals from more tropical climates like frogs, alligators, and crocodiles.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is good

[Mama Bearian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Each page is illustrated with a lot of animals and their sounds. I find this much too busy, and photographs would be much more helpful for young children learning to identify the animals.

[Jordan Booth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun silly book with lots of animal onomatopoeias. The bullfrog is the BEST! Definitely needs to be read aloud.

[Diana Salazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for young children to try to sound like all the animals on the pages. The most impressive page was the one that featured Starlings.

[epg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A vibrant panoply of animals and their diverse voices, charming and inviting illustrations and such fun to see how familiar animal sounds are perceived by French ears. For instance in France a cow says meuh instead of moo, a sheep says bée-bée instead of bah-bah, a duck says coin-coin instead of quack-quack, a frog couac instead of wee bit, a chicken cot-cot-cot instead of cluck-cluck and the rooster* proudly calls out Cocorico instead of a silly cock-a-doodle-doo. But in this book even silent animal friends such as star fish, butterflies, turtles and snails are not forgotten with the last spread dedicated to mute beasts.

Interesting enough I notice that some of the English words were left in this edition like roar for the lion. I wonder if it was to add diversity to the sounds or because no established French version existed for some animals? Anyway, a pure delight to explore with little listeners and indeed a wonderful way to share a rich moment with a French speaking child to teach you how animals speak in France. Such fun. I would love to get my hands on the original English version, but it seems to be rare.

*The rooster is an emblem of France

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another unusual book like Crash! Bang! Boom!, but this time devoted to animal sounds. From humpback elephants ("taa-taaah") to dolphins ("ih-ih-ih-ih"), rattlesnakes ("ticka-ticka-tick") to rats ("squeal"), each animal is wonderfully rendered in Spier's inimitable style -- then labeled, and given a sound to make in concert with about 15-30 others on each two-page spread.

This is a good book for early readers, who will benefit from the enjoyable phonetic practice of sounding out the animal noises. Confident readers may enjoy it even more, especially if they can share the experience with friends who enjoy imitating animals. Pre-readers will enjoy having it read aloud and may have fun imitating the animals, but parents should be forewarned that it can be rather tiring to read aloud.

The book is unfortunately out of print, but is available on the used market.

[Asho · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was little I had Peter Spier's Christmas book and his Noah's ark book and I loved them. Neither of those books had text, just illustrations, but I would page through those books for hours looking at the pictures. As I got older I started writing my own stories about the pictures in the books. They really inspired my creativity in a way that few other picture books did.
So when I saw Gobble, Growl, Grunt at a used book store and recognized Spier's illustrations, I had to have it for my baby. This book does have text, but it's simply various animal sounds. I don't read this to my son yet because he's not quite old enough to appreciate animal noises, but I hope he eventually finds it as fun as I know I would have as a child.

[Alison Durbin · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this book does have its place in front of some audiences, I do not see myself purchasing this for my future classroom. I think that this would be a great book for possibly pre-K and Kindergarten in that it's a good way to introduce the different sounds of animals. It would also allow kids at that age to identify common animals in a different way other than their actual identity. (For example, instead of looking at a picture of a rooster and saying "rooster" they can read this book and know that "cock-a-doodle-doo" would also be acceptable for rooster.) One thing I do see that could be valuable for older children is in the introduction of onomatopoeia(s), but that would be the only reason I would give if I were thinking about purchasing this book.

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book NEVER gets old! I love learning the animals and after I've got them all figured out, I'll move on to the animal sounds. Grandma bought me this book since it was one of Daddy's favorites as a little boy. I learn something new every time I read this book and I also learn different things depending on who reads it to me: mommy, daddy or grandma. Unfortunately I already ripped a page out of it...it was an accident...oops.

[Paul Hankins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one starts with a mouse that happens upon a group of animals who seemingly try to intimidate the mouse. The following pages become a collage of animals and the sounds they make.

A wonderful picture book to introduce onomatopoeia and animal sounds. Smaller print on the pages identify the animals.

Will the mouse get the last word?

Found this 1971 classic in the bins of West Clark Community Schools warehouse.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

What noises do all kinds of animals make? A sample of sounds include Kewk-Kwek-Kwek (ducklings) , Meh-Meh-Meh (goat), and Yeck-Yeck-Yack (Black skimmer). By the end of the book the animals are quiet.
The animals are realistically portrayed in full color.

[Kaitlyn Lawrence · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not personally like this book. It would be a good read to introduce sounds and how to read those sounds but there were too many sounds all over the page that it was hard to follow along with the book.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book for a kid to leaf through, not to be read aloud. For some reason not all animals are labeled, and as always i hate the writing out of animal noises. There is a vague story that goes throughout the book.

[Angela Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toddlers love this one, but I tend to avoid it as I suck at making the right sounds.

[Vali · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is difficult to follow, the words almost Shakespearean, but I like the pictures.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book because their really isn't a story or information being shared. The only text is the noises that the animals make.