Review by Booklist Review
Caldecott Medalist Rohmann tenderly interprets a 30-word poem by Scotsman James Guthrie in this attractive offering with a small, easily held trim size and a die-cut cover. One bright day, two squirrels bounce out of their tree to frolic in the meadow, but after the sky darkens, they return home again, where another, parental squirrel awaits them. The watercolor artwork is warm and sweet but never cloying, and it pairs well with the rhythm of the poem, closing with the narrator's quiet call: To the milk-white / Silk-white / Lily-white star, / A fond goodnight / Wherever you are. The brevity and calmness of the words make this a good just-one-more book at bedtime, and the depictions of the circle of family love and the cycle of the day will inspire many just-one-more kisses before the lights go out.--Medlar, Andrew Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Late Scottish poet and artist Guthrie's spare ode to the heavens ("To the sun/ Who has shone/ All day,/ To the moon/ Who has gone/ Away,/ To the milk-white/ Silk-white/ Lily-white star,/ A fond goodnight/ Wherever you are") provides the framework for Caldecott Medalist Rohmann's (My Friend Rabbit) visual narrative about a family of squirrels. Rohmann's watercolors picture the playful squirrels, with which active siblings will readily identify, racing down their tree and tumbling around, before being called back by a (presumed) parent. The diminutive book ends as it begins, with the squirrels sleeping in a cluster, a reminder that another day's adventures aren't far away. Ages 3-6. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Readers peek through the thick cover's cut-out of a heavily leafed oak tree to spy a mother with two young squirrels, all bundled in sleep as dawn breaks. Guthrie (1874-1952) wrote the four line poem that serves as the entire text: "To the sun/Who has shone/All day,/To the moon/Who has gone/Away,/To the milk-white/Silk-white/lily-white star,/A fond goodnight/Wherever you are." Rohmann glides the squirrels from treetops to tumble, limb frolic, then star gaze. A gorgeous play of light carefully tends to the day's progression, alternating wordless scenes with those accompanied by a single line of text. The variety of perspectives adds to the depth of this small book's paintings, which honor the Scottish author's verse.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A short poem by Scottish poet Guthrie (18741952) salutes the day: "To the sun / Who has shone / All day, / To the moon / Who has gone / Away..." In illustration, a squirrel family frolics, beginning and ending its day in its tree trunk home. Together, the whisperlike poem and tender watercolors create a quiet musicality. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Rohmann sets a short lullaby from an early-20th-century poet and printer to brushy watercolor scenes of a family of lightly anthropomorphized, bright-eyed squirrels frisking about a grassy, sunlit glade before returning to their cozy nest to sleep. Because the text is so brief that many spreads have just a single wordor none at allthis reads like a short film captured on paper, its pacing governed by the timing of page turns. The poem may be brief, but Guthrie's language is simply gorgeous: "To the milk-white / Silk-white / Lily-white star, / A fond goodnight / Wherever you are." The book's wee trimit's a snug seven-by-seveninch squareemphasizes the intimacy of both words and art. The illustrator has done this sort of thing before, of course, most notably in his Caldecott-winning My Friend Rabbit (2002); here the art is lighter in line and color but just as joyful. A die-cut front cover provides an inviting gateway to an idyll that will tempt viewers to linger. (Picture book. 3-5)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
