Crash! Bang! Boom!

by Peter Spier

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Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

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]

This is one of those books I know my children would have loved when they were small. Pages and pages of detailed illustrations of actions accompanied by the phonetic sounds. Work sites, battles, kitchen, orchestras, so much to look at. A really fun look at what sounds are made in the world around us.

Read on open library.

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book of sound effects would be a hit with my 5yo, but he would not have it. He wanted a real story.

It's a little dated with a laundry sink, spankings, typewriter, etc.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is interesting but it is full of only onomatopoeia, which makes it seem long and makes you tired as you read all of it.

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crash! Bang! Boom! is an unusual picture book which, rather than telling a story, provides an auditory and visual experience of the world. Each two-page spread contains about twenty actions which are related to one another in some way, with a written-out sound effect -- a boiling coffeepot sounding "glub-blub-glubglub" and then being poured, "luck-luck-luck," a chain-saw sounding "rrrooaarrrrr" and an axe hitting a thumb with a "thack."

The book is characterized by Spier's lively, intricately detailed drawings and has a very appealing mood. It ought to provide wonderful phonetic practice for beginning readers, and will also be enjoyable for confident readers. Preschoolers will enjoy having it read to them, but adults may find it wearying to read aloud, so I recommend it primarily for self-reading.

Like many of Spier's wonderful books, this one is out of print, but is available on the used market.

[Maggie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading Crash Bang Boom, this allows me to introduce sounds and phonics to my young students. They can learn from listening to this book because it will allow them to use their experiences of what objects make specific sounds. They can relate their experiences into this learning process to get them familiar of what sounds come from what objects. I can also have the students repeat the sounds as a call and response. This is a good book for kindergarteners and first graders because some objects they make not know what they are. They can engrain in their brain the objects and what sounds they make. Some students my be unfamiliar with sounds or objects. They may have never heard these words before. however, we should introduce sounds to the students to get them ready to describe the way things make sounds.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a great concept, 4 year old loooved it, but archaic, absolutely no range of representation of types of people, a page with a kid getting spanked over someone’s lap for breaking a window, and kids playing with fake (presumably to me) guns. Pass. There may not be other books with this much onomatopoeia on every page, but there are definitely better options. This one didn’t stand the test of time.

[Sarah Scheper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite of books, it would not be a book that students would likely want to read often. This book would only really have a place when learning about onomatopoeias.

[Velvet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fav growing up. I don’t know if it would be a hit nowadays though. I really enjoy the illustrations and making noises was always fun in my youth.

[Tina]

Great for figuring out how to write a sound if you ever needed to.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun onomatopoeic sounds chaotically presented, with one double page spread per category.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lot of fun!
kids will love going through this book imitating sounds and coming up w/their own.