A Quiet Place - Hardcover

Wood, Douglas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689815115 ISBN 13: 9780689815119

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2002

Synopsis

"Sometimes a person needs a quiet place."
A place that's far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life -- a place that isn't ringing or talking or roaring or blaring or playing. But sometimes that place isn't easy to find.
You could look under a bush in your own backyard, where the world seems far away...and you could be a pirate on a desert island.
Or you could sit on an old stump in the woods amidst the glittering sunlight and mossy shadows and be a timber wolf.
You could look by the sea or in the desert or in a cool dark cave, but if none of these places are right, you could come home and discover another quiet place.
Perhaps the very best quiet place of all -- the one that's inside of you.

In poetic and gently philosophical prose, acclaimed author Douglas Wood explores what it's like to find that special place where we all can think our own thoughts and feel our own feelings. Dan Andreasen brings exquisite imagination and thoughtful wonder to words that will inspire readers of all ages to seek out their very own quiet place.

About this title

About the Author

Douglas Wood is the author of A Quiet Place as well as the New York Times bestselling Can’t Do series. His books Old Turtle and Old Turtle and the Broken Truth were both international bestsellers. He lives in a cabin in the woods of Minnesota. A studied naturalist, Douglas shares his knowledge of nature as a wilderness guide. Visit him at DouglasWood.com.

Dan Andreasen is the illustrator of numerous picture books, including By the Dawn’s Early Light: The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner by Steven Kroll, which was named an ABA Kids’ Pick of the Lists and a Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies; A Quiet Place by Douglas Wood; and Sailor Boy Jig by Margaret Wise Brown. He has also authored several picture books, including With a Little Help from Daddy and A Special Day for Mommy. Dan lives with his family in Medina, Ohio.

From Publishers Weekly

Wood (Old Turtle) joins serene settings and dreams of adventure for a vivid romp through a child's imagination. Readers will relate to the ruddy-cheeked, blond city-dweller, who with hands clamped tightly over his ears yearns for respite from "whistles shrieking and grown-ups talking and engines roaring and ... grown-ups talking...." In prose saturated with simile and metaphor, Wood suggests numerous subdued spots for solitude from ponds and deserts to caverns and museums and then interjects the boy's fantasies into the mix. "You could look in the desert, where Old Man Saguaro reaches for the sky, and far-off thunderheads bloom like sky-flowers over the mesas. ... And you can be a Pony Express rider galloping through the Old West." That fantasy can loom larger than life is reflected in the layout of each spread: a small painting of the boy in his quiet place faces a full-page rendering of his daydream. For example, readers glimpse the boy leaving footprints on a beach; opposite, he's a flag-planting conquistador on a sandy shore. Andreasen (The Stars that Shine) laces his realistic oil paintings with a touch of otherworldliness. In muted hues and soft edges, the artist conveys far-ranging settings the boy, who seems at home in a Rockwellian yesteryear, envisions himself also as prehistoric caveman, swashbuckling treasure-finder, spaceman, etc. These scenarios will hold children rapt until the concluding thought perhaps a bit lofty for the very young that people hold within themselves "the very best quiet place of all." Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0689815115
• ISBN 13: 9780689815119
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Andreasen Dan