Goodnight Hattie, My Dearie, My Dove - Hardcover

Schertle, Alice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688039340 ISBN 13: 9780688039349

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1990

Synopsis

Hattie carries her many friends up to her room at bedtime and, one by one, brings them into bed with her, in a cheerful bedtime counting book

About this title

About the Author

"When I was very young," says Alice, "perhaps three or four, I remember sitting with a heavy book in my lap, running my fingers down the printed pages, puzzling over how adults could translate those strange squiggly symbols into the wonderful stories and poems they read to me. Eventually, I did unlock the secret of the squiggles, and I haven't stopped reading since.

Alice reads anything and everything, Fiction and nonfiction, but there is a special place in her heart for poetry. "There are things a poem can say that cannot be expressed as effectively in any other way. I love to rind a poem that shows me something, creates an image, perhaps, that is so startling, so original, so unique only one particular poet could have thought of it. But at the same time, the image, the idea, is so true, so right, that I rind myself saying, 'Yes! I knew that!"'

Alice Schertle is the author of more than forty books for children. Several of the most recent are collections of poetry. "One of the few things as wonderful as reading a good poem is writing one," she says. "I find writing poetry difficult, absorbing, frustrating, satisfying, maddening, intriguing.... I love it. If, at the END

of a day of pondering, discarding, rewriting line after line, I can read my poem and say to myself, 'This one works, 'It's been a good day."

When she isn't writing poetry, Alice is often working on picture books. She sometimes writes the ending first. "I love to bring a story full circle in a logical and satisfying way," she explains. "I sometimes think of a concluding scene or paragraph or phrase, and build a whole story leading up to it. The plot doesn't have to be extremely dramatic; sometimes very simple situations make the best stories. But familiar or extraordinary, real or imaginary, I hope the stories I write say something both honest and encouraging about people and life and the world we live in. If they provide a chuckle or two along the way, so much the better."

On the days when she isn't writing, Alice may lace up a pair of boots and go hiking all day in the mountains. On other days she can often be found visiting schools, talking to classes about the joys of reading and writing poetry and Fiction. A graduate of the University of Southern California and a former elementary school teacher, she has three grown children -- Jenny, Katie, and John.

Alice Schertle claims the best way to rind out what she is like is by reading her books, but if more clues are needed, she offers the following list of things she loves: "My family, unusual words, my hiking boots, any kind of squash, old movies, autumn, and cows."

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2 This bedtime ritual that encompasses one-to-ten counting is for graduates of Brown's Goodnight Moon (Harper, 1947). First Hattie helps her nine stuffed animals and dolls parade past her full-bodied, slightly squatty parents, who join in the fun. Counting repeats once Hattie's in bed, as Hattie offers logical reasons (to herself and other children) why each of her toys should join her in the bed. As each request is fulfilled, Mama tenderly offers the pleasant cadence of the book's title. The numerals appear on the outside edge of each page, with the appropriate ones shaded to coincide with the text. The full-color backgrounds of the rich pictures show subtle changes of color values. The unusual perspectives help to make this an enchanting blend of text and visuals. Sure to become a favorite at bedtime and for the end of evening story hours. Ginny Caine Cooper, Hillsboro Public Library, Oreg.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0688039340
• ISBN 13: 9780688039349
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 26
• Illustrator: Edwards Linda