Oh Dear, Look What I Got!

Arrayed shop visits yield a series of unexpected purchases in this engaging comedy of errors from the creators of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. First-person narration begins with a pale-skinned child’s attempt “to get me a carrot,” and their surprise upon discovering that the wrapped package contains a parrot. Additional outings to buy a hat, a coat, a cake, a chair, and more produce rhyme-based mix-ups that build to a menagerie of creatures, and a repeating lament: “Oh, dear,/ look what I got!/ Do I want that?/ No, I do NOT!” Eventually, a pup received in lieu of a cup sets the whole narrative into rewind, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly–style (“A wriggly pup...,// that chased the bear,/ that stepped on the snake...”), and a knock at the door further promises to make things right. Rosen’s humor-laden rhymes and cumulative conclusion result in a simple, polished tale that will elicit easy laughs as the refrains, and beasts, accumulate. Oxenbury’s familiar light-handed pencil and watercolor artwork makes an ideal companion—spare but expressive scenes center on the flabbergasted young shopper until a lively resolution makes a party of the “wild” events. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Charles Walker, United Agents. (Sept.)