GOOD DAY, GOOD NIGHT

Name: GOOD DAY, GOOD NIGHT
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
ISBN: 978-0-06-238310-5

by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Loren Long ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 2017

With pleasing echoes of Brown’s famous classic, including bookends of a cow jumping over a moon, this bedtime story will...

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A new potential classic just right for bedtime, on the 70th anniversary of Goodnight Moon.

With a vintage palette that today’s adults will likely recognize, this tale introduces readers to a lively bunny village nestled in green hills that surround an old oak tree. One bunny eagerly greets the sun as he begins his paper route and then joins a soccer game with friends. Busy neighbors deliver milk and sell pastries in the town. When at last evening approaches, residents return home, and lights blink on to shine into the hushed night. Muted acrylic illustrations portray these two tales of day and night, beginning with the endpapers. Each daytime scene has a nighttime twin—especially the detailed, full-village illustrations—to reassure apprehensive little ones concerned about the gathering dark at bedtime that all will be well during the night. Brown’s spare verse will resonate with caregivers as a read-aloud, with its bouncy rhythm by day and calming lilt by night. Long provides additional depth with captivating spreads that feature numerous opportunities to add visual stories to the tale and small, charming vignettes that contribute to the classic look and feel. (One such makes the all-too-common mistake of depicting a beehive as a wasps’ nest, this one with multiple doors, apartment-style.)

With pleasing echoes of Brown’s famous classic, including bookends of a cow jumping over a moon, this bedtime story will entice families back again and again . (Picture book. 2-5)

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-06-238310-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
TWO LITTLE TRAINS
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Greg Pizzoli

- BOOK REVIEW
A HOME IN THE BARN
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

- BOOK REVIEW
MARGARET WISE BROWN'S MANNERS
by Margaret Wise Brown ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

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ANIMAL SHAPES

by Christopher Silas Neal ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 2018

Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.

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You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!

What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?

Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)

Pub Date: March 27, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Little Bee Books

Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
OVER AND UNDER THE CORAL REEF
by Kate Messner ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

- BOOK REVIEW
WE LEAP TOGETHER
by Christopher Silas Neal ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

- BOOK REVIEW
OVER AND UNDER THE WETLAND
by Kate Messner ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

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HAPPY EASTER FROM THE CRAYONS

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2023

Let these crayons go back into their box.

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The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.

Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)