I'll Play With You - Hardcover

Siddals, Mary McKenna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395903734 ISBN 13: 9780395903735

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2000

Synopsis

The cut-paper artistry of Caldecott winner David Wisniewski is joined with Mary McKenna Siddals’s lyrical verse in this sweet and simple book about the joys of outdoor play. The sun, wind, clouds, rain, stars, and moon are waiting outside, inviting little ones to come and play with them. A multiethnic group of children is featured in this ideal read-aloud, in a small format perfect for little hands to hold.

About this title

About the Author

David Wisniewski (wiz-NESS-key) was born in Middlesex, England, in 1953. After training at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, he spent three years as a clown, designing and constructing his own props, costumes, and gags. He was subsequently hired by his future wife, Donna, as a performer with a traveling puppet theatre. Married six months later, the Wisniewskis started their own troupe, Clarion Shadow Theatre, specializing in shadow puppetry. In the course of creating the plays, puppets, and projected scenery, Mr. Wisniewski evolved the storytelling techniques and art skills that eventually led to his picture books with their unique cut-paper illustrations. His retelling of GOLEM was awarded the 1997 Caldecott Medal. David Wisniewski died in 2002 in the Maryland home he shared with his wife and two children.

From Publishers Weekly

Four children treat nature as their playmate in Siddals's (Tell Me a Season) cheerful book. A waking boy tells the sun, "Meet me outside," and a girl greets the wind as she brushes her teeth. While sitting in a grassy field with his pet beagle, another boy challenges the clouds ("You make some pictures. I'll guess what they are"). The speakers are not just fair-weather friends; one girl implores the rain to "fill up the puddles so I can go splashing," then dons a yellow slicker and leaps right in. At day's end, all four unite on a hillside under a vast star-filled sky; Wisniewski's (Workshop) cutout shapes in variegated shades of post-dusk blue accentuate the depth and height of the panoramic view. Then the children, each back in their own rooms, fall asleep with the moon shining through the window. Wisniewski depicts detailed images of tiny leaves, draped cloth and the children's alert faces, as well as more abstract ideas, such as an invisible wind, which he whips up by slicing a spiral of semi-transparent paper. The author avoids anthropomorphizing the weather, simply by imagining how a person addresses a silent-but-agreeable companion: "You twinkle, and I'll try to count you," the children tell the stars. Although the young characters spend time apart from human companions, it's a comforting solitude that suggests a fresh connection with the world. Ages 2-5. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0395903734
• ISBN 13: 9780395903735
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Wisniewski David