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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607002193756 | Picture Books | RYLANT | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
This lovely book illuminates all the possibilities a day offers--the opportunities and chances that won't ever come again--and also delivers a gentle message of good stewardship of our planet. Newbery Medal winner Cynthia Rylant's poetic text, alongside Nikki McClure's stunning, meticulously crafted cut-paper art, makes this picture book not only timeless but appealing to all ages, from one to one hundred.F&P level: NF&P genre: RF
Author Notes
Cynthia Rylant was born on June 6, 1954 in Hopewell, Virginia. She attended and received degrees at Morris Harvey College, Marshall University, and Kent State University.
Rylant worked as an English professor and at the children's department of a public library, where she first discovered her love of children's literature.
She has written more than 100 children's books in English and Spanish, including works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Her novel Missing May won the 1993 Newbery Medal and A Fine White Dust was a 1987 Newbery Honor book. Rylant wrote A Kindness, Soda Jerk, and A Couple of Kooks and Other Stories, which were named as Best Book for Young Adults. When I was Young in the Mountains and The Relatives Came won the Caldecott Award.
She has many popular picture books series, including Henry and Mudge, Mr. Putter and Tabby and High-Rise Private Eyes. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4-This picture-book poem discusses the many things that can be done in a day: plant a seed, make a wish, live a life. The illustrations were each cut from a single piece of black paper using an X-Acto knife. They incorporate white spaces and play against yellow and blue backgrounds. Astonishingly detailed, the artwork evokes the feel of classic 1940s and '50s picture books. The large spreads show a boy exploring nature on his family's farm, napping in a hammock with his mother, and hiking in the woods with his father. They successfully capture the magical childhood sense that a day can go on forever. There's no denying the simple loveliness of Rylant's text in lines like "The past is sailing off to sea,/the future's fast asleep," but ultimately, the poem's "seize the day" message may be better appreciated by adults than children.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
McClure's (Collect Raindrops) illustrations draw most of the attention here. Using an X-Acto knife and black paper, McClure suggests textures as varied as pea-plant tendrils, falling rain and the softness of a mother's body. "A day is a perfect piece of time/ to live a life,/ to plant a seed," Newbery Medalist Rylant (When I Was Young in the Mountains) begins, as a young farm boy ties one shoelace and a hen pecks at the other. In spreads on alternating blue and yellow backgrounds, the boy waters his garden and gathers eggs, but also picnics, naps and, along with his mother and the hen, stretches out on his back to gaze up at the sky. End-on perspective makes their feet, noses and the hen's body the only topographical features protruding from the curve of the horizon. "Underneath that great big sky/ the earth is all a-spin./ This day will soon be over/ and it won't come back again," Rylant writes. While children aren't usually moved by messages about fleeting time-that's a sentiment adults are likelier to have-they'll enjoy Rylant's rhythms and the tenderness of McClure's images. Ages 4-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved