Who Meows?: A Book of Animal Sounds

by Robin Page

From Caldecott Honor illustrator Robin Page comes a dynamic and interactive nonfiction picture book introducing little ones to animal sounds!

Meet many different inhabitants of the animal kingdom and learn what sound they make in this vibrantly illustrated picture book. The engaging question-and-answer text is perfect for little ones learning animal noises for the first time or just learning to read! And backmatter offers further exploration into why each creature makes their signature sound.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Storytime, Childrens, Nonfiction, Cats

32 pages, Hardcover

Published May 27, 2025

Reviews

[Miss Janis the Storytime Lady]

so, so, so good. fantastic opportunity for animal sounds, with most animals easily recognizable for littles. A couple of "tricksy" ones thrown in. Older kids enjoyed it just as much as the littles, suggesting other animals that might make those noises (yes, buddy, I guess a werewolf DOES growl...)
Fun stuff.

Early Literacy Playbook May 2026
April's Storytime Faves

This book is a fantastic opportunity for animal sounds, with most animals easily recognizable for littles (and a couple of "tricksy" ones thrown in). Older kids enjoyed it just as much as the littles, suggesting other animals that might make those noises (yes, buddy, I guess a werewolf DOES growl...) Fun stuff!

Early Literacy Hint: Making animal sounds is an important step in language development, since they are simple for littles to repeat. The process of associating sounds with pictures (“meow” = cat) is foundational for literacy. Older kids can use their imagination and classification skills to suggest other animals that might make the sound. And everyone can get in on the fun of naming animals that aren’t in the book, then making those sounds, too!

[Liz]

A very simplistic book where the right page asks which animal makes a different sound. It's a good introduction to expand kids vocabulary while working on sounds they are probably familiar with. The animal is revealed on the page turn. Page knows how to make a good book. The sparse text and big illustration of each animal makes it a great pick for storytime. I adapted it into a puppet activity, which worked well.

[Janet]

Robin Page is always spot on with her animal illustrations and this one for young preschoolers will teach them animals and their sounds. For example the art is an illustration of one of the animals faces and I couldn’t decide which one I liked best, the turkey, the cow, the duck, or the frog.

[Aolund]

A simple and attractive picture book of animal sounds that invites the reader to guess who makes the sound suggested on each page.

Themes: Sounds, Animals, Guess who
Age range: baby-preschool

[Richie Partington]

Richie’s Picks: WHO MEOWS? A BOOK OF ANIMAL SOUNDS by Robin Page, Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane, May 2025, 32p., ISBN: 978-1-6659-5956-8

“Horse went NEIGH!
Cow went MOO!
Sheep went BAA!
Dog went BOO!
Goose went QUACK!
Duck went SPLISHY-SPLASHY!
Hen went CHIPSY-CHOPSY!
Cat went FIDDLE-I-FEE! FIDDLE-I-FEE!”
–from the version of the traditional folksong that I was taught in my 1988 Early Childhood Education Music and Movement class, and which I subsequently taught to a generation of preschoolers.

“Who meows?”
[page turn to a spread with a full-page in-your-face cat face]
“A cat meows.
Who gobbles?”
[full-page in-your-face turkey face]
“A turkey gobbles.
Who croaks?”
[full-page in-your-face frog face]...

The husband-and-wife team of Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have created a good number of memorable nonfiction picture books about critters past and present, large and small. They include APEX PREDATORS: TOP KILLERS OF THE PAST AND PRESENT; DOWN, DOWN, DOWN: A JOURNEY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA; and the wonderful Caldecott Honor book, WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A TALE LIKE THIS? Thanks to the high-quality information contained in these books, coupled with Page’s award-winning artwork, I consider them picture books for older readers (certainly up through third or fourth grades)..

WHO MEOWS? is perfect for a younger audience. Here, artist Robin Page has crafted a picture book with a predictable call-and-response sequencing that is matched with truly awesome facial depictions of owls and cows and crows and mice and (“Who giggles?”) a great image of a giggling young rug rat.

WHO MEOWS? takes me back, half a lifetime ago, to the child development center where I was then spending my days setting up free-choice activity centers and leading daily morning and afternoon circle times. WHO MEOWS? is one of those books that early childhood educators leading circle times can employ a couple of times a month forever and ever.

You read them the prompt: “Who meows?”
You get them to all call out the answer. “CATS!”
You then encourage them [with a hand cupped to your ear] to get them to all get their meows out for a few moments. Then you move on to the next prompt.

These exciting interactive circle time readings can readily be reinforced with free-time opportunities for the young students to craft animal masks, paint animal pictures, bring in photos to share of their pets or neighborhood critters; and engage in related dramatic play.

And you can get them singing great animal songs like Fiddle-I-Fee.

I ain’t just quacking, folks. You definitely need to see these awesome creature faces!

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com

[Becky]

First sentence: Who meows? A cat meows. Who gobbles? A turkey gobbles. Who croaks?

Premise/plot: Who Meows is a question-answer concept book for little ones teaching animal sounds. It starts with a question, always. Turn the page to find the answer and get the next question. This format gives little ones ample opportunities to guess what animal will be revealed next. The format and structure is simple. The illustrations are colorful.

My thoughts: I liked this one. Or I liked it well enough. For the target audience--toddlers through preschoolers, I think this one is a solid choice. I could see this being a good choice for reading aloud with little ones at home. It might also work for story time at the library, though I'm less clear if this would be ideal. For larger families, older siblings could read aloud with younger ones. The appeal of this text might be limited to younger audiences but that doesn't make it less important to have in the library.

[Ellon]

4 stars (I really liked it)

This was a cute and simple book. It's definitely for very young kids so I doubt I would put it in my elementary school collection. The illustrations are great and there is even some backmatter about each animal featured in the book. It did bug me a little that the roar was a tiger and not a lion.

[C.L. Nehmer]

Big, colorful pictures. Simple text for pointing to each word as it is read, demonstrating that each sound has a written counterpart and that text moves left to right across the page. Early childhood book that gives the reader opportunities to stop and ask questions. Who do you think it's going to be? What does the cow give us? Ideal group story time read.

[Sara Kolvinsky]

Simple book and requires lots of engaging with your child to bring it to life. It’s the perfect book to be creative with. I like how repetitive the grammar structure was as be it’s great for learning.

[Marian Librarian]

04/01/2026 Simple enough that the toddlers stayed interested and also interactive enough that the older kids wanted to guess the animal - kept the whole group entertained! There were also a couple of animals that were tricky (more than one animal roars, they didn't know who cawed), but this wasn't a detriment. Not knowing the animal added a bit of mystery to it. Include this one and it'll have everyone barking, mooing, etc.

[Annamarie Carlson (she, her)]

Very simplistic - easy storytime book for babies or toddlers. Could adapt to a puppet activity or flannel.

[Sassygirl87]

Cute story about which animals make which sounds.

[Calla]

Very cute book that reviews animal sounds. Calla enjoyed reading it but I think it would be more beneficial for someone a little younger who is just learning animal sounds!

[Bookishrealm]

Simplistic and perfect as a toddler read aloud!

[Terresa Wellborn]

Very simple picture book ideal for littles: they can guess what animal makes what sound until the surprise at the end.

Themes: animals, sounds
Ages: toddler-K
Pub year: 2025

[Michelle]

My 8 year old daughter read this no problem.

[Y.Poston]

cute

[Michelle]

A great guessing game for storytime.

[Lillian]

very simple

[charlene.librarian]

Great storytime option for mixed ages, so that younger ones benefit from the older ones who shout out the answer. Each large (full page) expressive illustration of the animal is superb.

[Beronica]

Perfect for baby and toddler story time. Such magnificent attention to detail and great conversation starter about what children notice on each animal. Parents loved it, as well.

[Kerry]

Great fun! The kids at my story time loved to guess and yell at me all the answers. Great for an animal or sound story time. Big hit!

[Kimberly]

Delightful! Using this for baby storytime on 6/19/26.

[Cheryl Gladfelter]

Simple and so fun! Kids are going to love making animal sounds. Love the backmatter facts about why and when animals might make those noises.

[WhiteDF]

Nominated for the 2027 KY Bluegrass award for preschool students, this simple book encourages little ones to make animal sounds.