Thank you NetGalley and North South Books for my ARC copy!

Thoughts from Aubrey the Lab Mix Librarian, aka The Labrarian:

I have to give this one 5 stars because I thinks kids will LOVE it. Aside from the first few pages, it's a wordless picture book where kids make the sound effects for all the pages. May cause spontaneous stomping, clapping, and joyful chaos. Grownups, brace yourselves—you may not like this one, but it's a great way to let kids have FUN with a book.

What a unique picture book. If there was any book where pictures could allow the reader to hear sounds in their head this is it. Readers are going to have so much fun interpreting the pictures and creating their own stories.
Thank you to North South Books Inc. and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

See my full review at http://michelleardillo.com/2025/05/25/book-review-buzz-boom-bang-by-benjamin-gottwald/

Thank you NetGalley and NorthSouth Books for an e-ARC of "Buzz! Boom! Bang!" by Benjamin Gottwald, releasing September 30, 2025!

This book is super fun and creative! I think kids will love making up the sounds for the different illustrations. It's silly and creative and will be great for kid's imaginations! There are a bunch of different illustrations too so kids can come up with lots of different sounds!

This wordless picture book is a completely different interactive item. The introduction suggests that readers look at each picture and make the sounds that the pictures suggest. This will certainly get youngsters to be creative. There is no right or wrong answer. This versatile book is suggested for four and up. While younger children will enjoy the book, some of the pictures are not obvious enough for toddlers. Older children will have fun coming up with multiple sounds for some of the pictures. At 168 pages, it could be read in one sitting for adults or older children., but would be best "read" with younger kids in several sessions, a few pages at a time. Parents or teachers will discover some pages they want to skip because of obscurity or topic and others that they will want to return to again and again.

I definitely understand what they were trying to do, and a lot of it would be really solid ways to show your imaginations, but I wish they had put an onomatopoeia as text on each page...some of the sound even I as an adult would have trouble describing, let alone small children. Very vibrant illustrations, though! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read!

I love the creativity of this book. There are no words on the pages. Instead there are illustrations and it encourages the reader or looker to imagine the sounds that are being made. Some are easy, like the sound of an ocean wave or a fly buzzing. But others are more challenging, leaving me wondering what that would sound like or making up my own sound because there isn’t a correct answer. I found this clever and imaginative. There are a lot of pictures so for younger children it may be better to do parts at a time and not try to do the book all in one sitting.

It might feel a bit like cheating to say I “read” this book...Buzz! Boom! Bang! is entirely wordless, but that’s exactly what makes it so clever and fun. This interactive picture book invites young readers (and their grownups) to make the sounds they see, turning story-time into a noisy, giggle-filled performance.

I appreciated the way it encourages imagination and gives children a creative outlet for sound. It’s a playful way to build sound recognition and engage kids in storytelling, even without text. The bold, strange illustrations might not be standout art for adults, but they’re just the kind of weird and vibrant images that kids tend to love.

Overall, this is a fun and inventive concept that turns reading into an active, joyful experience. Perfect for preschoolers or story-time groups who like to get loud.

Loved the concept of this! I think it could have used a little more direction for some of the pages/sounds because I wasn’t sure what sound to make. But maybe that’s the beauty of this book. I can make whatever sound I want.

I received an advance review copy for free from the publisher via Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

What a fun book! I wasn’t sure what to expect based on the description, and when we first opened the book and saw there were no words to read, I thought my 3 year old was going to ask me to put it away and read something else. Instead, he fully embraced the activity of coming up with the sounds associated with each picture, and we had a blast. The illustrations were great and drove imagination and play.

Thank you to NetGalley and NorthSouth Books Inc. for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and NorthSouth Books for the e-ARC of this title to read and review. This was a really fun and clever concept for a read-aloud book. It's mostly wordless aside from the opening prompts, which is to interpret the illustrations as you will and encourage your young reader to make the sound effects they think the drawings would make. It's not even about having the "right" answer, because some are for sure abstract scenes (so, not as much like the books where you teach a kid that cows say moo and pigs say oink, for example.) There are a TON of illustrations, so I can only see you getting through this one together at storytime if a kid is VERY invested in doing all of them and finishing the book, or if you're okay skipping some or making up other stories for the images. You can really make the experience your own!

I received an electronic ARC from NorthSouth Books Inc. through NetGalley.
Gottwald creates a fun and interactive book for toddlers and preschoolers and even those a bit older than that. Readers get an explanation on the opening page spread and are challenged to read out loud for each sound. Then, the pages unfold with a wide variety of artwork and sound makers. This can be read straight through or a few pages at a time. After the first few readings, they may select particular pages to return to again and again. I love the bright colors and the fact that they will have to think on some pages to decide what the sound should be.

This would be an excellent book to be used as an ice-breaker for a classroom, story hour, or even just to have some giggles at home. The illustrations are funny, cheerful, and easy to understand (since it requires little ones interrupting them to make the noises). I can definitely see this being read over and over.

Netgalley ARC - 3.5 stars rounded up, this is a lot of fun as a prompt and I could see it leading to a lot of giggles. I think it should be 25-50% shorter, some of the pages are repetitive or difficult to represent sonically.

This is a wordless book to let you look at the pictures and make your own sounds.
It's a fun book that kids will definitely have fun with. But I did think it's a bit long.
I guess you can just turn to any page and make sounds, you don't really need to start at the beginning.
Kids will have fun making up their own sounds for the pictures.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC .

Buzz! Boom! Bang! is a fun, interactive read out loud book perfect for toddlers. It contains all the elements of an entertaining read. Playful illustrations, funny prompts, and wild colors.

Although the book is fun and entertaining, I did find it to be a tad long, and I did have some difficulty with some of the sound effects. But that's probably just me as I seem to think that guys should have no problem with any of the sounds.

Overall, Buzz! Boom! Bang! is a very amusing book that is sure to please any toddler, and budding foley artists. Four solid stars.

I was invited to read a DRC from NorthSouth Books through NetGalley. This review is my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.

What a wonderful book! I knew it was going to be fun at the beginning when it said it was meant to be read aloud-- then there were pictures with no words! This isn't just a book to be read out loud, but loudly! Kids can use their imagination to show the different ways things sound.

Buzz! Boom! Bang! would be a great tool for preschool or kindergarten aged students who are exploring early literacy. As the book has no text, other than the "instructions" at the beginning, the reader is encouraged to create sounds to narrate the book. I would not purchase this book for my class as it includes pictures of poop, someone passing gas, and witches. However, it is one that I would buy for my toddler. We will have lots of fun reading it together.

Thank you to North South Books and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy. Opinions expressed are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and NorthSouth Books for the advanced digital copy for me to read and review.

This wordless book is a fun concept and has lots of potential for use in a lower-elementary classroom with fun interaction, vocabulary and English language learning, etc. or as a one-on-one read aloud with a child at home. As an elementary librarian I can imagine students enjoying about half of it before getting somewhat bored - there are a LOT of pictures to interact with (about 120) in the book! (I reviewed it digitally and assume each picture is a separate page or 2 page spread, which means there would be 120+ pages). The digital illustrations are bold, colorful and simplistic, similar to Todd Parr's illustration style.

I wanted to love this book so much, but I found it overwhelming and the pictures, at times, felt amateur. This book isn’t for everyone, but it will absolutely be the favorite of others. Some kids are going to love all of the silly pictures and the opportunity to lots of noise, but others may be frustrated by the unusual pictures or the sheer number of pages (over 100!) If you’ve got a fan of goofy noises who has the stamina for long books or is okay reading only part of a book, then this is the book for you.