Go and Get with Rex by David LaRochelle (review)

Reviewed by: Go and Get with Rex by David LaRochelle Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor LaRochelle, David Go and Get with Rex; illus. by Mike Wohnoutka. Candlewick, 2024 48p Trade ed. ISBN 9781536222067 17. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 1-3 Jack, Jill, and Rex the dog are ready for a game, and our unseen narrator is happy to oblige, tasking them with finding something that begins with the letter "F. " Jack brings back a frog, Jill a fish, and Rex a. . . duck? Rex, however, does indeed fulfill the mission by presenting the duck as a Friend. For the letter "S, " Jack finds a snake, Jill finds a skunk, and Rex finds a. . . duck? Well, actually he brings two ducks, who are Sisters, of course. The letter "M" garners a mouse, a moose, and Musicians (a full band of ducks), and the human participants embrace the wackiness for the letter "D, " with Jack presenting a dinosaur in a dress with a drum while Jane's dragon draws a daisy at a desk. Of course, Duck would be the obvious choice for Rex here, but as usual, he surprises the narrator, presenting himself, Dog. As in End Page 285 See the Dog: Three Stories About a Cat (BCCB 7/21), LaRochelle offers a wonderfully cheeky but absolutely functional sendup of the early reading primer, with an engaging narrator and a familiar premise. While the phonics lesson is obvious, the actual building of literacy skills is stealthier, with vocabulary varying in sophistication and sentence structure getting more complicated as the chaos increases. The art is uncomplicated but essential in understanding the humor, building on the visual literacy that picture books have likely already established for young readers. This is a fanciful offering that proves phonics can still be fun. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois