The Park in the Dark - Hardcover

Waddell, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688085164 ISBN 13: 9780688085162

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1989

Synopsis

After night falls and their owner is asleep, three toy animals decide to go to the park and play.

About this title

About the Author:

Martin Waddell and Barbara Firth have worked together on a number of picture books: Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? (Winner of the 1988 Smarties Book Prize and the Kate Greenaway Medal); Let's Go Home, Little Bear; You and Me, Little Bear; Well Done, Little Bear; We Love Them; Sam Vole and His Brothers; and Tom Rabbit. Martin Waddell won the Smarties Book Prize a second time for Farmer Duck and Barbara Firth was shortlisted for the same award for A Song for Little Toad.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- A picture book told in rhyme about the adventures of three stuffed animals. The narrator, a large toy orangutan, is joined by a floppy-eared elephant and a small spotted dog. Together, "me and Loopy and Little Gee" leave their sleeping, human owner for the park. While swinging and sliding, they are interrupted by a THING which sends them scurrying home, "where we ought to be." The illustrations--double-spread, frameless beauties in soft watercolors--communicate the friendship of the animals during their nighttime escapade. The language, while evocative and poetic, could be confusing to children who may not understand ruined mills and "withers that wobble." Children will recognize the depth of the friendship shared by the toy animals, and the protective stance of the largest creature for the smallest. The book succeeds primarily because of its illustrations. It offers a chance to share in the shadows cast in the city by bright moonlight. It's a good choice to share with a fair-sized group of kindergarteners or first graders, and a nice addition to nighttime theme books such as Rice's Goodnight, Goodnight (Greenwillow, 1980) and Memling's What's in the Dark? (Parents, 1971; o.p.) --Reva Pitch Margolis, Norwood School, N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0688085164
• ISBN 13: 9780688085162
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 26
• Illustrator: Firth Barbara