Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* This original picture book features a fresh look, an endearing main character, and a wordless story that speaks clearly to young children. Hank, a little animal, finds an egg on the forest floor and tries to return it to the nest overhead. He rolls a log to the tree and steps onto it, but he can't reach the nest. He makes a ladder and climbs up, but the nest is still too high. After sleeping with the egg that night, Hank returns to the tree and sees a hummingbird. Carefully wrapping the egg in moss tied with ribbon, he offers it to the bird, who carries it to her nest. Hank keeps watch nearby until three little hummingbirds hatch and fly to him. Dudley creates and photographs wonderfully detailed, meticulously crafted dioramas. Changing character poses, settings, camera angles, focal points, and lighting contribute to the illustrations' unusually strong sense of reality. This unassuming story holds great appeal for young children, who frequently find themselves too small to accomplish what they set out to do. Hank prevails through his creativity, his persistence, and his ability to work with another to solve a problem. A quietly magical little book to share, one on one, with a small child.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Dudley has created the artwork for her wordless debut by crafting a small forest creature, setting him in a handmade forest full of cut-out ferns and dead leaves, and then photographing him in various poses. Hank looks a bit like a baby chimpanzee, or perhaps a baby chimpanzee in a bear costume; his black bead eyes and diminutive snout peer out from a hooded suit. Hank finds an egg on the forest floor that's fallen from a nest in a branch high over his head. After several unsuccessful attempts to climb the tree, Hank wraps the egg up and gives it to the mother hummingbird, who carries it up herself. He's rewarded when the egg hatches along with its clutchmates, and three small hummingbirds dance in the air in front of him. Aside from Hank's trouble climbing the tree, the story is free of threat or conflict and suitable for the very youngest readers. Delicious details like Hank's twig ladder and carefully moss-wrapped egg show that Dudley is firmly in touch with her inner child. This is an artist to watch. Ages 3-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-This wordless picture book is set in Dudley's fanciful Storywoods forest. With photographs of dioramas, she tells the story of Hank, a bearlike stuffed animal who finds an egg that has fallen from its nest. He tries various means to return it to the nest but cannot quite reach. A log he rolls up to the trunk doesn't lift him high enough and neither does the ladder he crafts together with twigs and twine. So, he carries the egg off with him to his campsite and tucks in for the night. Dudley has done a particularly good job with the lighting in the charming campsite scenes. The next morning Hank carries the egg back to its tree, wraps it in foliage, and watches as the mother hummingbird flies it home. The eggs eventually hatch, and Hank has three new friends. What is most unique about this book is how the setting is constructed. Dudley uses felt, paper, stone, and a variety of other materials to create her dreamy world. This is a book that is suitable in a one-on-one setting, as readers will want to take time to look again and again at the fine detail in the photos.-Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2013. 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
In this wordless offering, Hank finds an egg in the forest and spends the book's length trying to figure out how to return it to its nest. His noble efforts are relayed through impressive staged photographs in which Dudley has hand-crafted every element, from Hank (he resembles a stuffed animal) to the leaf blanket with which he warms himself in the woods. (c) Copyright 2013. 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.
