Judy Sierra is the acclaimed author of more than forty
picture books, including the award-winning Wild About Books;
ZooZical; Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf; The Sleepy Little Alphabet;
Suppose You Meet a Dinosaur; and Everyone Counts. Her writing for
children is enriched by her work as a puppeteer, storyteller, and
folklore scholar. Judy lives and writes in Portland, Oregon. You
can visit her at JudySierraBooks.com.
Marc Brown is best known as the creator of Arthur the aardvark, but
you will find no aardvarks or animals wearing glasses in this book.
Drawing upon his classical training at the Cleveland Institute of
Art, Marc Brown’s colorful paintings for Wild About Books reflect
the naïve spirit of folk art at its best. “Judy Sierra’s story gave
me the opportunity to indulge myself in painting,” said Mr. Brown,
adding that this is the book of which he is most proud. He lives in
Hingham and Martha’s Vineyard, MA.
PreS-Gr 2-In a rhyming text that is both homage to and reminiscent of Dr. Seuss's epic rhyming sagas, Sierra spins the tale of librarian Molly McGrew who mistakenly drives the bookmobile to the zoo. The various denizens are attracted to her read-alouds and soon are reading, writing, rhyming, and going wild about those wonderful books. With Molly's encouragement, the animals start their own Zoobrary so they can read to their hearts' content. Sierra's text has a wacky verve and enough clever asides and allusions to familiar characters to satisfy bibliophiles of all ages. The author's sense of playfulness in plot and language ("llamas read while eating their llunches"; a hippo wins the "Zoolitzer Prize") creates a lavish literary stew. Comic moments abound, including bugs writing haiku and unruly bears licking illustrations right off the page (until Molly gently teaches them how to treat books properly). Brown's cheerful, full-color illustrations stretch his trademark art with ever-so-slightly stylized spreads that are rich in pattern, texture, and nuance. On each spread, he plays with perspective and layout to create an electric sense of excitement as the animals discover what kids have known for a long time-reading is fun!-Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha's Public Library, WI Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
