Night Sounds, Morning Colors - Hardcover

Wells, Rosemary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803713029 ISBN 13: 9780803713024

Publisher: Dial, 1994

Synopsis

Moving through the seasons of a child's year, a lyrical picture book evokes the senses, with spring violets growing brightly, summer rain pattering on leaves, autumn smells of baking, and winter's icy winds gentled by a cozy nap.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Divided into four vignettes, a child's first-person narration offers an appreciation of the senses and the seasons. One morning, the youngster sees a spiderweb, in the mist "loaded with emerald raindrops"; the sun shining through the window onto a stream of "gold honey"; and just-planted violets ("so bright in their deep black earth that my mother is sure they are laughing and singing"). Evening sounds heard by the narrator include Grandpa reading a story ("His quiet voice rolls up and down like ocean waves"); a spoon clinking and chocolate sauce dripping as the boy's mother makes an ice cream sundae; and his father humming a bedtime song. Grandma's preparations for Mother's birthday dinner yield numerous appealing smells and tastes; and a winter walk brings encounters with a cold icicle, a prickly thorn bush, a soft feather and an itchy sweater. Wells's (the Max and Ruby books) well-chosen images effectively convey the power of sensory experience. While McPhail (Farm Boy's Year; Santa's Book of Names) takes liberties with traditional proportion and scale and gets occasionally unfortunate results, his acrylic paintings successfully conjure up an intimate view of a child's world. Ages 2-6.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2-In several short "chapters," a young boy describes moments in which he experiences the sensations of smell, color, sound, taste, and touch. He wakes up before sunrise, eats biscuits and honey, celebrates his mother's birthday with a cake made by his grandmother, and takes a winter walk with an older brother. The incidents are related in spare, blank verse without much plotting, and are illustrated in sometimes surrealistic, always impressionistic full-page opaque acrylic paintings. The child lives in a rural area-setting and time are not specified. The dark, richly colored interiors, the variety of earth tones, and the subtle lighting of the boy's figure emphasize the sensuousness of his experiences; the frame around each picture focuses the eye and the event, isolating and intensifying it. While there's not much story here, the feelings are deeply felt, true to life, comforting, and invigorating.
Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dial
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0803713029
• ISBN 13: 9780803713024
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: McPhail David