AGE LEVEL
1 and 2 year-olds
GENRE
Poetry
REVIEW
In this superb 1997 Caldecott Honor Book, Ho draws on her own childhood experience growing up in Thailand to tell the story of a mother who seeks to quiet a series of animals so that they don’t wake her supposedly sleeping baby. The text is perfect for toddlers, with its many rhymes involving long “e” and “i” sounds and its repeated refrain. For example, when the mother finds that a sound coming from the pond outside is a duck, she requests: “White duck, white duck / don’t come beeping / Can’t you see that / Baby’s sleeping? / White duck, white duck / don’t you cry / My baby’s sleeping / right nearby.” Children will enjoy making animal sounds as they are expressed in Thai: a monkey screeches “Jiak-jiak!” and an elephant bellows “Hoom-praaa!”. There is also a subtle humor in the book arising from the way in which the mother earnestly addresses the animals, and the fact that unbeknownst to her, her baby is not actually sleeping, but climbing out of his bed. Holly Meade’s painted illustrations are supremely captivating in their harmonious greens, oranges, and browns, exhibiting collage and wood-cut print qualities in many instances. This book is a great pick for one and two year-olds due to the repetitive nature of its text, and demonstrates to young children the commonalities of all cultures through the example that mothers in Thailand love and worry about their children just as much as mothers everywhere.
LIBRARY PROGRAMMING IDEAS
This book could be read at a toddler storytime with other lullaby-based books.
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