Yukkin' It Up! Laugh Out Loud Baby by Tony Johnston

THE FIRST TIME OUR BABY LAUGHED OUT LOUD

OUR FAMILY STOOD STILL TO LISTEN.

SWEET DAY!

THAT SMALL SPILL OF HAPPINESS

WENT RIPPLING THROUGH THE HOUSE--A DAZZLE, A JAZZLE, A SHINE.

Everything in the household stops while the folks are enchanted by that sound, from grandpas down to tots. A baby's first real laugh is such a pleasure that the family feels that everyone in neighborhood needs to hear it.

The area around is scoured, and soon an expectant crowd, picnic baskets fortified with provender, fills their tumbledown little house, all crowding around to hear that magical sound. Even great-great-grandma is there, her ears cocked.

There's just one problem. Baby's mirth seems to be shut down.

No amount of coo-chy cooing and even tickling evokes a smile. Perhaps intimidated by all the strangers' eyes on him, baby won't giggle.  All kinds of laughs from the grownups fail to set him off:

...SNICKERY NOSE LAUGHS
DOWN-TO-YOUR TOES LAUGHS...

Finally all their efforts fall flat. Baby smiles, but no laugh follows. Disappointed, the friends and family give up and figure they might as well enjoy their impromptu potluck get-together anyway. The crowd starts eating and blabbing away among themselves, the baby temporarily removed from the center of attention.

Will baby ever perform that wonderful laugh for everyone to hear?

In her just published latest, Laugh-Out-Loud Babym, (Paula Wiseman Books) (Simon & Schuster, 2012), author Tony Johnston's bouncy, rhyme-studded text and Caldecott artist Stephen Gammell's typically quirky illustrations keep little listeners laughing even when the baby isn't. And of course, it's not to worry, as giggles will out in this new tall tale from this dynamic storytelling duo.