Want a sure-fire read aloud—perhaps a sure-fire sing aloud? Look no further.
What would happen if consonants suddenly thought they ruled the alphabet, and told those poor little vowels they weren’t important?
The Letter B gets on his high horse and informs the first vowel, A:
There are 5 vowels in your group
but 21 in our grand troop.
I’m a more important letter.
Consonants are so….much….BETTER!
Well, you’re darn tootin’ that ol’ A isn’t gonna take the insult lying down. No siree. Ol’ A high tails it out of dodge. And then things get “a little weird.”
The dog can only “brk.” The duck can only “quck.” And the frog can only “crok.”
Of course, the horse has no sympathy for these critters. He just laughs and says:
Neigh! Who needs the A?
And turned his back to eat some hay.
Then the letter E has had it with the rude comments, and disappears….leaving the horse to change his tune, “Nigh.”
I burst out laughing when I came to the page with the birds and sheep.
Text ⓒShannon Ottostocker IllustrationsⓒTom Disbury
The consonants bust a gut listening to the cacophony, too. And well, the letter I isn’t going to stand around and take it.
I spins off like an astronaut, leaving the horse with a mouthful of consonants.
When the horse can only “Ngh” and the pig “onk,” it’s cow’s turn to laugh at everyone else—until the “O” packs up to go. “Mmmmmm,” says cow. And the rooster? Well, try saying “cck-ddl-d” if you can. Better yet, ask a room full of kids to make all these animal sounds without the vowels.
I won’t spoil the ending, but suffice to say, the letter U does indeed save the day. And the final surprise is so good, you’ll wonder why you didn’t see it coming. Kind of like that tractor bearing down at you from across the field.
Shannon’s meter scans well on the first read-through, a blessing for those who read rhyming picture books aloud. Kudos to the illustrator, Tom Disbury. The expressive anthropomorphic letters look right at home next to the panicked farm animals.
A highly recommended read aloud.
Resources/Activities:
Sing along with Can U Save the Day?
Think of other words that describe sounds. How would the sounds change if the vowels were missing?
Write a sentence using only consonants, and see if you can figure out what it says. Now do the same with vowels. Which one is more difficult to read?
Pair this book with Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham.
Title: Can U Save the Day?
Author: Shannon Ottostocker
Illustrator: Tome Disbury
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press, 2019
Themes: alphabet family, hubris, wordplay
For more perfect picture book recommendations visit Susanna Hill’s blog.
Jilanne Hoffmann 
Wht fun! So happy to be able to use the U in that reply!
And I noticed that you left the “A” out of “what.” Nice!
I love these kinds of books! I’ll B on the lookout!
Oooh, spoken like a wordplay enthusiast and someone who knows much about A Inconvenient Alphabet!
I love books with wordplay or letter play, as is the case in this gem! I’m curious about the ending, and hope I can find a copy soon! Thanks!
There was a shipping problem right when this book came out, but it’s been resolved, so I think you should be able to find a copy, now. Enjoy!
Hahaha, I am so glad you included an illustration of the shp and brds! SOO much fun. Kids (and I) love wordplay!
Yes! It’s wonderful when illustrations complement the text in such a playful way. They all look so nonplussed in the “correct” sense of the word, LOL.
Yay! I love this book so much, and I have a not-so-secret crush on the author! 💜💜
She and her book are pretty darn awesome. Yes, indeedy!
Humor, rhyming, and silly sounds – sold. Kids will love this book. Can’t wait to find it at the library…or put it on hold. Thanks for a great review of it.
I hope your library has ordered lots of copies. I think it will be quite popular.
This looks really cute. I feel like it would pair well with Tara Lazar’s 7 Ate 9 and her new one The Upper Case: Trouble in Capital City.
Can’t wait to check it out.
Oh, yes! Those are great choices!
Did you ever read Ella Minnow Pea? It’s an adult book, but I just loved the way Dunn played with the loss of letter. https://www.amazon.com/Ella-Minnow-Pea-Progressively-Lipogrammatic
I’ve never read that book! It looks fun and interesting. Perhaps I should add it to my TBR adult pile….thanks for the rec!
This looks like a great book to read with kids who will get a kick out of playing with the alphabet. I could see them making up their own vowel-less stories.
Yes! They can let their wordplay run wild.
Looking forward to reading this book. It sounds hilarious!
The hilarity truly comes out when you try to make the animal sounds without the vowels. Such a hoot!
Looks SO clever, like my kind of book. Thanks for the lead; we love a good play on words!
We are a word-oriented family, too. My 15 year old son even thought it was funny.
I’m delighted U turned out to be the hero after the centuries of persecution and neglect it has suffered at the hands of cruel, uncaring Americans. The book sounds full of humoUr, and the pictures are nicely coloUred!
Brilliantly played! Touché!
puts me in mind of studying Tibetan, it uses vowels in the transliteration, but looks like a whole lot more are missing: Bka’ brgyud
Pronunciation would stymie me.