Listen, Listen! - Hardcover

Gershator, Phillis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846860849 ISBN 13: 9781846860843

Publisher: Barefoot Books, 2007

Synopsis

Introduce young readers to the sights and sounds of the year from summer's sizzling sun to winter's crackling snow. Featuring breathtaking illustrations by internationally renowned illustrator, Alison Jay, this book will open your child's eyes and ears to the world around them!

About this title

About the Author:

Phillis Gershator has written more than twenty-five books for children. She has worked as a children's librarian and enjoys cooking, gardening, and especially reading. Phillis lives in the US Virgin Islands with her husband and frequent co-author, David. This is her first project with Barefoot Books. Alison Jay lives and works in London. A graduate in illustration from the London College of Printing, Alison has been illustrating children's books for over a decade. To create her unique style, she uses alkyd oil paint on paper with a crackling varnish, which gives her illustrations an antique, nostalgic quality. This is Alison's second project for Barefoot Books, following I Took the Moon for a Walk (9781841486116).

Review:

In a spiritual and aesthetic companion to Jay s beautiful Picture This (2004), the artist s work pairs with
Gershator s simple, evocative rhyming imagery to conduct viewers on a walk around a small town as
seasons change. Jay s stylized pictures, with the texture of ancient frescos, are a window into a world in
which the buzz of an insect and the whoosh of the wind lend surprising emotion. Illustrations filled with
snowmen, anthropomorphized animals, and people running through a leaf-swept field will make children
long to discover what is just over a hill or around the next bend. Capturing a summer idyll reading in a
hammock with the same care as a warm evening by the fireplace, Jay invests each image with both joy and
melancholy. This jewel of a book will draw children back again and again.

-Jesse Karp --Booklist, November 15, 2007

PreS-Gr 3 In this ode to the seasons, the sights and sounds of a picturesque country village are artfully evoked. Under the summer sun, Leaves rustle, hammocks sway. Splish, splash, children play. In autumn, Pumpkins ripen, quick, quick. Apples, corn pick, pick. During winter, Crunch, crunch, boots clomp. Grown-ups shovel, children romp./Skaters spin, skiers glide. Zip, zoom, slip, slide. When spring arrives, ;Pop, pop, bulbs sprout. Leaves grow, flowers shout. Jay's crackled-varnish paintings have a nostalgic, folk-art quality. The rhyming, onomatopoeic text wraps around the busy scenes, and the words and art together provide a smooth transition between the seasons: summer's gone is illustrated with a swarm of insects buzzing off the page. An appended can you see game encourages close examination of the changing landscapes. Children will be inspired to listen, listen in their own environments. -- Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada --School Library Journal, December 2007

About this edition

• Publisher: Barefoot Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1846860849
• ISBN 13: 9781846860843
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Jay Alison