An elaborate illustration of a simple concept, with the crowded, busy pages of Gobble, Growl, Grunt (1971, p. 1068, J-380) and Crash! Bang! Boom! (1972, p. 671, J-225) but without all of the spelled out sounds. We find the compelling simplicity of Tana Hoban's black and white photographs in Push, Pull, Empty, Full (p. 1021, J-313) a more effective (and surely less confusing) teaching tool, and we still prefer Spier's illustrated nursery rhymes to his more recent efforts as a sort of high class Scarry. Still there is enough inventive detail on every page to keep even a non-reading child independently busy, and there's no denying the series' popularity at every level.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1972
ISBN: 0437765091
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1972
A picture book made to incite pleasure and joy.
The celebrated picture-book artist enthusiastically joins the nonsense tradition.
Carle’s nearly 50-year career has produced myriad concept books about counting, the alphabet, and colors, as well as simple, original stories, retellings of fairy tales, and picture books that push the physical boundaries of the form. This latest proves that Carle can reinvent himself as a creator in the field, as he now revels in the absurd, eschewing any pretense of teaching a concept or even engaging with story. Instead, spread after spread uses nonsensical text and sublimely ridiculous pictures to provoke laughter and head-shaking delight. In addition to the book’s title, art immediately cues the book’s silly tone: the cover displays one of Carle’s signature collages against an empty white background; it depicts a duckling emerging from a peeled-back banana peel. The title-page art presents a deer sprouting flowers rather than antlers from its head. When the book proper begins, and language joins illustration, readers are ushered into a series of situations and scenarios that upend expectations and play with conventions. “Ouch! Who’s that in my pouch?” asks a kangaroo with a little blond child instead of a joey in her pouch. Another scene shows two snakes, joined at the middle and looking for their respective tails.
A picture book made to incite pleasure and joy. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-17687-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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Little children will love this going to sleep book — a really fresh idea by a talented and prolific author, illustrated by Clement Hurd. In a soft sing-song, here is a bunny saying goodnight room, goodnight moon, goodnight to all the familiar objects in the softly lighted room. Then- as the room darkens, in successive pictures, the goodnight ceremony moves forward. The colors range from a bright, crisp red, green, yellow, to an almost black background. Despite the high price, which takes it out of the straight merchandise market, this is a good buy, from quality of text and pictures — and most of all, idea.
Pub Date: Sept. 3, 1947
ISBN: 0060775858
Page Count: 40
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1947
SEEN & HEARD
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