Oh Dear, Look What I Got!
by Michael Rosen; illus. by Helen Oxenbury
Preschool    Candlewick    40 pp.
9/25    9781536235685    $17.99
e-book ed.  9781536242621    $17.99

Rosen and Oxenbury, of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (rev. 11/89) fame, bring us a new cumulative tale of miscommunication and unintended animal high jinks. It’s market day, so our child protagonist sets out to the shop to buy a carrot. The grocer packages up a parrot instead. Unwrapping the parcel at home, our confused shopper asks, “Oh dear, look what I got! Do I want that? No, I do not!” The child sets out again, this time in search of a new hat. The milliner presents…a cat. With the rhyme scheme in place, the predictions get easier and sillier as the child purchases more and more items, and readers will enjoy watching the growing collection of animals warily eyeing their new housemate (and vice versa). Finally, the potter delivers a wriggly pup (instead of a cup), which sets off a chain reaction of creature chaos in the living room. The doorbell rings, all the shopkeepers line up to present the originally requested items, and a multigenerational, interspecies dance party breaks out. Do we want that? Yes, we do! Oxenbury’s trademark expressive pencil and watercolor illustrations expertly accompany Rosen’s rhymes, conveying characters’ reactions to the silly situations they find themselves in and adding much detail and humor. A shoo-in for storytime fun.

From the September/October 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.