Paperback Level K: Night Sounds (Houghton Mifflin English)

Book Details:

• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 5/1/2000
• Pages: 32
• Reading Level: Age 5 and Up

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.
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