The pigs are the surprise in Moo, Baa, La La La!. You're moving through a familiar assortment of animal sounds, and then there they are, singing. It's a small joke with a lot of room around it for the grown-up reading aloud to be a little silly.
Animal-sound books are good to consider if the sound of reading together is part of what you enjoy. They give you something specific to do with your voice, even on a day when you haven't the slightest idea how to invent a story of your own.
A farmyard of voices, or a growing crowd of dogs
Moo, Baa, La La La! moves between different animals and their sounds. Doggies stays with dogs, adding more of them and building a chorus of different barks as it counts. We'd choose the first for the variety and the singing-pig surprise, and the second for the pleasure of making one dog sound different from the next.
You can read all the voices yourself. Or pause for a moment and see whether anyone wants to add one. A quiet listener is still sharing the book, so there's no need to keep asking for a moo before you turn the page.
On another reading, you might simply look at the animals together. Our counting-book comparison takes a closer look at the number side of Doggies if that becomes interesting too.
The Spanish edition is its own book
Muu, Beee, ¡Así fue! is the Spanish-language counterpart to Moo, Baa, La La La! The two are sold separately; neither is a side-by-side bilingual volume.
For a gift, we'd ask which language the family would like to read, and who might be doing the reading. Some households may want both copies. Animal-sound spellings and translated titles can change, so let the Spanish story be read naturally in Spanish rather than trying to line up every sound with the English version.
A cow with a Halloween question
Boo! Baa, La La La! has a seasonal twist: a cow hears a mysterious reply and goes to investigate. It belongs in a Halloween reading pile, while the everyday sound books can stay on the shelf through the rest of the year.
If you're making a small book gift, one sound book and a different theme can give it a bit more variety. There are more possibilities in our Sandra Boynton collection, including silly stories about body words. And when a bark seems to need a little movement to go with it, our movement-storytime guide has a few ways to let the page spill into the room.
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