![]() Wow, this really hit home in a slightly uncomfortable way. I imagine that this would make an excellent story-time selection, especially for younger children who enjoy the experience of knowing more than the characters in the story. Owl tearing apart his entire house felt a little over the top, although I did appreciate the scene in which he tensely waits for the noise to recur, as I too have had that experience at night, unable to fall asleep because I am paying too much attention to some repetitive sound. ![]() The story itself struck me as being a little. Eventually he discovers that it is a little mouse making the noise, and bidding the murine interloper goodnight, he falls asleep underneath the stars.Īn amusing tale, one which relies on the illustrations to keep the reader/listener informed - although Owl doesn't know what is causing the squeak, the artwork shows the mouse on each page, letting the child in on the joke - Good Night Owl has the same colorful cartoon-like illustrations that were so appealing in previous Greg Pizzoli titles, from The Watermelon Seed to Templeton Gets His Wish. Each time he returns to bed, only to hear the noise again, Owl becomes progressively more bothered, pulling up his floorboards, taking off the roof of his house, even pulling down the walls. Thinking it must be coming from the cupboard, he pulls everything off the shelves, but cannot find the source. When he discovers that nobody is there, he returns to bed, only to hear the noise again. Owl hears a squeaky noise as he is going to bed and, thinking it must be somebody at the door, he goes to investigate. There were pictures of Pizzoli's other books on the book jacket, and now my son wants to check them all out at the library. ![]() My son also got a big kick of knowing the source of the squeek from the start, and understanding something that Owl didn't. There's just something so amusing about Owl's increasing rage at not being able to find the "squeek", and how completely irrational he gets as the night goes on. I don't even know how to describe what's funny about it. Tonight I got the chance to read it with him, and he was laughing his head off all over again. My husband and I trade off reading bedtime stories with my son, and one night when the boys were reading together I heard my son laughing hysterically about this book. When he picked this one out at the library I worried, based on the cover and simple title, that it would fall into the "babyish and not very exciting" category. My son is 5 and not reading independently yet, which means he is still solidly into picture books, but some of them are becoming a little "babyish" for him. For sorry, but I honestly do not really consider Owl's destructiveness with regard to his roof and walls as presenting a good and positive attitude (and also giving a rather problematic potential message), since in my opinion, Good Night Owl could in a worst case scenario make young children believe that one could and perhaps even should deal with encountered problems (such as Owl's squeaky noise scenario) with anger and by being willfully and openly hostile (and yes, as other reviewers have pointed out, owls generally eat mice, so it is also more than a bit strange that Owl has no issues totally tearing down his house but then seemingly makes friends with the mouse that is the cause of all of this mayhem).Ĭombined with the fact that I have also not found the accompanying illustrations all that aesthetically pleasant, as I do seem to find Greg Pizzoli's pink and pastelly colour scheme not at all to my visual tastes, while I have in no way actively despised Good Night Owl, I also have not found either Pizzoli's text or his artwork personally appealing enough for more than a two star rating. However, I was still willing to swallow and subdue my sense of disbelief, as indeed, Good Night Owl does start out engagingly and humorously enough, with Owl continuously getting out of bed to look for the source of the squeak that is preventing him from settling down (and which readers right from the onset know is a mouse) definitely making me smile, that is UNTIL Owl ends up in a fit of supreme and raw temper basically demolishing his entire house to try to get rid of his noise issue. Well first and foremost, I guess I have to admit that I do find it rather disconcerting and definitely a trifle problematic that author/illustrator Greg Pizzoli has his owl going to sleep at night instead of being up and about (since owls of course are nocturnal and therefore tend to sleep during the day).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |