I found this to be a beautifully written & illustrated book about the renewal of each day. The story begins with a little boy sad to see the day end and his mother explaining to him that the day ends so night can begin. . . The prose is soothing and imaginative . . . the message is about how they day can end for you, but it begins again in another place for someone else. . . it seems to me to be a gentle way of talking about letting go. . . letting go of the day, of the season, of the wind, of things, so that these things can carry on in a different way. I think it is a great way for a child to begin to understand about the finite nature of life. Also, is addresses the immediate and strong feeling of my toddler of NO NIGHT NIGHTS!!! The prose is so soothing and imaginative it actually lulled my child to sleep. The illustrations are colorful and beautiful. An EXCELLENT book.

In easy language with good illustrations, this book will help children to understand why the day has to end, where the wind goes when it stops, where the waves go when they break on the sand, where does the rain go, etc.

The story flows like a poem, yet offers insight into complex concpets, and demonstrates life's eternal evolution and motion.

This is a soothing, inspiring book that illustrates the truth and meaning of the eternal circle of life. It is a comfort book, and a spiritual revelation. A must for Pagan parents, and all parents. The illustrations are deep and beautiful.

I used the book with my students and they really enjoyed it. They learned about the Pennsylvania Dutch and their life style along with the alphabet. A new word, "row", was introduced and lead to a wonderful dictionary lesson.

Better than the usual A-Z teaching tool in that it's a well-written piece of prose--how surprising. Lovely illustrations with an Amish theme. Will please adults as well as the young.

Every living being sleeps, from the bear in his dark cave, fish among the water ferns, and horses standing up switching their tails, to the snowy crane who sleeps standing on just one leg, turtles inside their shells, seals with their flippers against blocks of ice, and of course little boys and girls. Originally published in 1958, Charlotte Zolotow's Sleepy Book is as fresh and wonderful today as it was over 40 years ago. Her simple, gentle text is full of imagery and magic, and complemented by brand new, evocative illustrations. Artist, Stefano Vitale, has really captured the essence of Ms Zolotow's poetry with engaging pictures of sleeping animals in quiet, subdued tones. Together, word and art create a soothing and comforting bedtime story that will lull little ones off to dreamland. "...but little boys/ and girls,/ when the night/ comes/ and the wind/ whispers gently/ in the trees/ and the stars/ sparkle and shine,/ sleep/ warm under/ their blankets/ in their/ beds."

This is one of the best books I have ever read for children of all ages. I read it to my children and now I would like to read it to my grandchildren. My children adored this book and it always put them to sleep at night and made bedtime enjoyable!

I am an elementary art teacher, and I read this book to my first graders when we were talking about African art. They absolutely loved the story! By the end of the book, they were reciting the repeating phrases with me. Then they wanted me to read the whole story all over again. I seldom get such an ethusiastic response from my students when I read to them. The artwork in the book is very reminiscent of African art and goes along very well with an art project we make when talking about Africa. This book is a wonderful addition to a unit on Africa.

The artwork is rich, detailed, amusing, and simultaneously illustrates different lines of the story--that is, in the background, are shown the line about the characters running up hill and down, while in the foreground the next phase and character of the story is depicted. Also each of the talking items floats in the background space, so you have lots of things to point out and talk about with the little ones--or just go for the story, it's fun. The colors and the dress of the people match what we see in W. Africa. My child enjoyed an animated reading from the age of 18 months. The story is a traditional one as well, which lends to the overall richness. I have a number of children's books depicting W. Africa, and this and Trina Schart Hyman's Fortune Teller are my favorites for their beauty, detail, and their faithfulness to the scene here. To the Sweet Shores of Africa, is another beauty as well---this one is poems with beautiful pictures.

What a wonder is "When Stories Fell Like Shooting Stars"! I stumbled across this book 18 months ago, while searching for stories that would engage both my self and my then four-year-old daughter. The story echoes the plurality of our times -- particularly in light of September 11 -- but is rendered in such a simple and evocative voice as to leave adult and child alike dazed by its redolent charm. And the illustrations: daring, bold, dark -- and yet filled with a suprisingly luminous light, are like none I've ever seen in a "children's" book. Waste not a moment, sojouner, and purchase "When Stories Fell Like Shooting Stars"! You won't be sorry.

This book strengthens children's conflict-resolution skills by demonstrating the consequences of decisions. By using stories that start out similarly, the author skillfully weaves the message of peace and shows that it's better to share things than to fight over them. The message is very universal and doesn't target any one group of people. In fact, the characters in the story are animals. The author carefully picked certain animals with negative or positive connotations to be the main characters. The fox is still sneaky, cunning, and selfish and the bear is wise and protective. The pictures are very intrically done, with an emphasis on the warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) in one story and an emphasis on cool colors (blue, purple, green) in the other. The book is also rich in metaphors and similes, which are new and creative, not overdone sayings. This author did a great job with this story. I loved the book so much that I wrote a unit plan for it! The only thing I'm disappointed with is the advertising and distribution of the story. I had never heard of it until I chanced upon it in the public library. All the teachers and school librarians that I talked to were not familiar with the book. With better advertisement and distribution, this book might have been a best seller. Although it targets children, this book is written for us all.

I have been looking for this book for two years, after I borrowed it from a library. Both of my kids, 3 and 1 at the time, loved it, but so did my husband and I. This is a sweet story about the animals who come to give their gifts to the baby Jesus. The text is in verse and is easy to understand, but will appeal to all ages. The illustrations are photos of beautifully painted scenes on a wood background. It will be a family favorite in our house for many years.

I was fascinated by the idea that Charlotte Zolotow's "If You Listen" had been originally published in 1980 with different illustrations than those provided by Stefano Vitale for 2002 edition. You do not think of a children's book as having different illustrations; I mean, "Goodnight Moon" would not be the same classic book with different illustrations. But as I never read the "original" "If You Listen" (and could not find it around town) I cannot comment on a comparison of the artists.

"If You Listen" is a sensitive story about a young girl who misses her father who is far, far away and will not be coming home soon. The young girl asks her mother how she can know if her father still loves her, and her mother tells her to listen inside herself and she will feel his love. Zolotow paints lyrical pictures with her words of simple but enduring images of what you can hear if you really listen and Vitale actualizes these images with paintings down on wood, which provide a compelling texture to the art. There is a simple elegance to "If You Listen" that will make it a memorable reading experience for young children (ages 4-8) who are separated from a parent because of circumstances beyond their control. Of course, in this age of e-mail and phone cards Zolotow's solution may now be somewhat obsolete, but there is still a simple truth behind it that remains compelling.

These beautifully-illustrated Inuit poems clarify for the reader the lives and beliefs of the remarkable people we call Eskimos.

Who doesn't know the stories "The Gingerbread Man" or "The Lady Who Swallowed a Fly"? But, have you heard of "The Pancake" or "The Cat and the Parrot"? Sierra organizes eighteen folktales from around the world into a collection focused around six themes. This combination of mostly unfamiliar folktales from India, Jamaica, and Zaire (to name a few) and more familiar ones from the United States and England are easily accessible through a well organized contents page. Sierra commendably includes a detailed introduction and thematic background information in addition to extensive source notes which include tale origin information and detailed explanations for changes to the tales. In one instance Sierra explains her rationale behind the name changes she made in "The Pancake". In order to preserve the rhyme scheme present in the original version, she changed the characters' manes to "goody-poody", "many-panny", and "henny-penny". This attention to detail helps both young listeners and more capable readers adore and accept the unfamiliar fables in this collection. Vitale completes this book with exquisite illustrations of the tales through his use of repetitive, culturally-based boarders as well as text-based illustrations. For the tale of "Odon the Giant", Vitale depicts Odon as a huge beast with sharp teeth who is creating havoc for those people beneath him. Vitale combines both sharp and subdued colors to create an illusion of ancientness in his illustrations. The reader feels that they aren't opening just another book, but one passed down through the generations.

This book explains clearly Christ's role in Easter, and how Easter traditons relate to him. This book is able to get this message across in a very easy-to-understand way. I read this book to my sunday school class and they enjoyed the book very much. We also had fun doing some of the activites the book included. I liked this book very much, and I would suggests this book to anyone who is trying to explain the meaning of Easter in a very fun and understandable way.