Yak and Gnu

Lively good humor is afloat—along with an armada of adventurous animals—in this silly seafaring tale.

A romp in the river with Yak in his kayak and Gnu in his canoe leads to a safari full of unusual nautical discoveries. A goat in a boat? A calf on a raft? A whole flotilla of whales and gorillas? No matter how many other strange sailors they come across, Yak and Gnu are certain there is no other beast quite like either of them. Climb aboard for a nonsensical voyage featuring an eclectic collection of embarked animals, awash in rhyme and tongue twisters perfect for reading aloud.It’s a lovely feeling, when you’re young, to share a secret name or a private song with your best friend. That’s definitely the sentiment held by two boon companions in Juliette MacIver’s “Yak and Gnu” a comical rhyming picture book that celebrates the bonds of special friendship even as it registers the comeuppance that friends may feel when their treasured intimacy proves to be less exceptional than they thought.
—The Wall Street Journal

The perfectly rhymed bits of text get progressively more hilarious, and kids (maybe the teller, too) will be in stitches by the time they see the flotilla of gorillas...A boatload of fun.
—Booklist Online

Good for libraries in need of rhyming, tongue-twisting stories or books featuring animal antics.
—School Library Journal

Audiences will delight in the chipper repetition, comic internal rhymes, and rueful cumulative tagline...The Seussian silliness of the verse makes this a sure bet for kids looking for something gnu.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Charming.
—Kirkus Reviews

Sweet.
—School Library ConnectionJuliette MacIver is the author of The Frog Who Lost His Underpants, also illustrated by Cat Chapman. She lives in New Zealand.

Cat Chapman is the illustrator of Juliette MacIver’s The Frog Who Lost His Underpants. She lives in New Zealand.