Sometimes it looked like a rabbit and sometimes it looked like a birthday cake. Sometimes it looked like an ice cream cone and sometimes it looked like a tree. It was really most interesting. It looked like so many things. And such different things, too. As different as a mitten and a Great Horned Owl. Sometimes it looked like spilt milk, but it wasn't spilt milk . . .  WHAT WAS IT?

This is the question that will keep small children engaged, guessing and curious, through the pages of IT LOOKED LIKE SPILT MILK until the very end, when they learn that it wasn't spilt milk but . . . what it was.

The intriguing form of the book, and the ending itself, will present a delightful idea to children, one that will probably not end with the closing of the book. Mr. Shaw has done it in a simple pattern that children will catch on to easily. It is something they can take part in themselves, and that is what they like best of all.

From the dust jacket

A beautiful and engaging classic that inspires creativity and imagination

The white shape silhouetted against a blue background changes on every page. Is it a rabbit, a bird, an ice-cream cone, or just spilt milk? In this childhood classic, kids are kept guessing until the surprise ending, and they're encouraged to improvise similar games of their own.

This classic was one of the first books to introduce nonrepresentational art to children. "Inimitable. Represents one of the finest picture-book examples of abstract art and participatory text. It is a renowned American classic that continues to engage young readers with its absolute graphic strength and verbal dialogue between craftsman and child" (Children's Book and Their Creators).

Charles Shaw was discovered and nurtured by Margaret Wise Brown, his first editor. It Looked Like Spilt Milk was introduced at the same time as Brown's own Goodnight Moon and The Growing Tree from Ruth Krauss—three books that helped form the foundation of picture-book literature and continue to stand the test of time.

From the publisher on the board book