Things That Sometimes Happen: Very Short Stories for Little Listeners - Hardcover

Avi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689839146 ISBN 13: 9780689839146

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002

Synopsis

Here are a few things that sometimes happen:
HAPPY THINGS
An unpopular Black Crayon proves to a Little Girl how useful he really is.
SAD THINGS
On a very hot day, an Ice-Cream Cone waits...and waits...to be eaten.
EXCITING THINGS
A Papa catches cold, so his Little Boy gets to go to work instead!
These nine very short stories for very young readers -- culled from Newbery Honor author Avi's first book and illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Marjorie Priceman -- ingeniously capture the funny, surprising spirit of a child's imagination.

About this title

About the Author

Avi is the author of more than seventy books for children and young adults, including the 2003 Newbery medal winner Crispin: The Cross of Lead. He has won two Newbery Honors and many other awards for his fiction. He lives with his family in Denver, Colorado. Visit him at Avi-Writer.com.

Marjorie Priceman, illustrator of many acclaimed picture books, has won Caldecott Honors for her illustrations in Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin! by Lloyd Moss and Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the Frist Hot-Air Balloon Ride, which she also wrote. She lives in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 3-Culled from a longer collection of the same name (Doubleday, 1970; o.p.) and newly illustrated, these nine brief stories combine the whimsical magic of nursery rhymes with the familiarities of everyday life, fashioning a fanciful world that invites young imaginations to soar. The anything-can-happen tone is set in the title piece, in which a boy and his cat meet at lunchtime and compare their morning adventures, which include a visit to the North Pole, a tiger hunt, and an encounter with a bunch of fur-grooming monkeys. In "Small Between the Rain," a youngster shrinks himself down to a size that enables him to run between the raindrops, but he ends up falling into a puddle. In "Going to Work," a boy takes his sick father's place on the job. Told in simple language and packed with child appeal, these tantalizing tales are neatly tied together by Priceman's glorious gouache illustrations. Capricious and colorful, the artwork swirls around the text, providing lots of eye-catching action, intriguing visual surprises, and a needed sense of continuity. With their loose lines, flowing curves, and bright color combinations, the pictures have a childlike quality that matches the tone of wonder that infuses the stories. This is a great choice for sharing aloud, and for inspiring children to describe the things that sometimes happen to them and create their own tales.
Joy Fleishhacker, formerly at School Library Journal
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0689839146
• ISBN 13: 9780689839146
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Priceman Marjorie