From School Library Journal:
PreSchool-K Picturing events that take place near an oak tree, in time intervals of two hours, from 6 a.m. one day to 6 a.m. the next, gives this book a staged effect, despite pleasing design, texture, and color. The events seem arbitrary, and are introduced by a small picture (e.g., a squirrel) under the lines of text (``At eight o'clock a squirrel gathers acorns. Then he hurries off to hide them''), followed by a page depicting the full scene and the tree. Shadows shift to mark the time as sun sets and moon rises, although the text does not point this out and refers to time only by the clock. The book raises questions it fails to address, e.g., an owl, sitting alarmingly near a nest of robins (seemingly affixed to the tree, parents always awake) is described as watching the mouse on the ground. Graphic designerslike Nancy Tafurihave translated their art into lovely concept books for the young. Coats has obvious skill, and individually the pictures create a lovely mood, but their cumulative effect is rigid rather than meaningfully patterned. Ruth M. McConnell, San Antonio Public Library
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly:
From six o'clock one morning to six o'clock the next, the oak tree in this book is center stage to many activities punctuated by time. The sun and the moon, the rain and the rainbow, the squirrel and the possum, the cow and the bat, the baby bird and the owl are all present. People, too, are participants: at high noon, the tree is used as a picnic site; later as an observation post; then a traveler spends the night under the tree's branches, resuming his journey at daybreak. Like Coats's first work, Marcella and the Moon, this is a gratifying book, eloquent in its simplicity. The rolling landscape of the oak tree makes real and completes the story of this little world, in paintings where small details subtly highlight the shifting light of a day's passing. Ages 3-6.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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