Old Black Fly - Hardcover

Aylesworth, Jim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805058400 ISBN 13: 9780805058406

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 1998

Synopsis

Nothing drives a family crazy faster than an old black fly on a hot summer day, especially when the family's a little crazy already. And this fly is as bad as they come. He knows every low-down trick in the book--and won't rest until he's gone through them all.

He ate on the crust
of the Apple pie.
He bothered the Baby
and made her cry.
Shoo fly!
Shoo fly!
Shooo.

About this title

About the Author:

Jim Aylesworth taught the first grade for more than twenty years. He has written more than twenty books for young readers, including My Son John and McGraw's Emporium. He lives in Hinsdale, Illinois, with his wife.

Stephen Gammell has illustrated many books for children. He won the Caldecott Medal for Song and Dance Man. Stephen Gammell lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

From Kirkus Reviews:

``Old black fly's been/buzzin' around...And he's had a very/busy bad day,'' begins this alphabetical litany of misdemeanors (``He frolicked on the Eggs/for the birthday cake./He licked up the Frosting,/ for goodness sake./Shoo fly!/Shoo fly!/Shooo''). Having troubled the entire household and ``lit on the List'' of groceries (all of which turn up elsewhere), the fly ``Zzzz'''s onto a table where he comes to a just end: the baby drops the cake on him. Aylesworth's buoyant, rhythmic verse provides inspiration for a wondrous evolution of Gammell's style. Framing the book in dramatic fly-black endpapers, he intensifies his trademark rainbow colors, laying them on a white ground in vibrant clouds, flinging them in ebullient splatters signifying the mess and confusion in the fly's wake, and counterpointing the impressionistic setting with precisely observed characters and details: an outraged cat, Gramma's wizened face, the hairy, red-eyed culprit. Sheer delight for eyes, ears, and funny-bones. (Picture book. 3+) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0805058400
• ISBN 13: 9780805058406
• Binding: Board book
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Gammell Stephen