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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607003100628 | Picture Books | CARLE | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
A TIME Magazine Top 10 Children's Book of 2015!
Ducks growing out of bananas?A mouse catching a cat?What's wrong with this book from the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar ?
Yes, there's something strange, somethingfunny and even downright preposterous onevery page of this book.But it's not a mistake -it's nonsense! And it's also surrealism.Nonsense lies at the heart of manybeloved nursery rhymes. Children readilyaccept odd statements like "the cowjumped over the moon" and "the dish ranaway with the spoon." This fanciful bendingof reality is also basic to surrealism.
In this book, nonsense and surrealismcombine to spark creativity and imagination. What's true? What's impossible? What's absolutelyabsurd?From Eric Carle, creator of the classic, TheVery Hungry Caterpillar, comes a book to makechildren laugh and think, preparing them for alifetime of loving both words and art.
Following on the heels of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (an homage to the artist Franz Marc and expressionism) and Friends , with its semi-abstract artwork, The Nonsense Show forms a trilogy of sorts, dedicated to introducing young readers to different styles of artwork without ever overlooking the need to, first and foremost, appeal to children and their love of play. One of the true legends and pioneers of picture book making continues to expand and challenge the genre.
Praise for The Nonsense Show
* "Carle creates fun and laughter in thishomage to the surrealist artist Rene Magritte. P erfect for storytimesand silly times all round. Carle hits it out of the nonsense park!"- Booklist , starred review
* "A sure hit as a read-aloud and a definite purchase for picture book collections."- School Library Journal , starred review
* "A picture book made to incite pleasure and joy."- Kirkus Reviews , starred review
* " The Nonsense Show , with its cleanly designed white pages, makes the unexpected elements of the imagery stand out and prompts questions and wonder."- Horn Book , starred review
Author Notes
Eric Carle is an award-winning, children's picture book author and illustrator whose most recognized work is The Very Hungry Caterpillar Board Book. Carle was born to German parents in 1929 in Syracuse, New York. The family returned to Germany in 1935, moving to a suburb of Stuttgart. Carle disliked high school, quitting at the age of 16 before graduation. He was admitted as the youngest student to the Akademie der bildenden Kunste, an art school.
After finishing at the Akademie, he worked as a poster designer for the U.S. Information Center in Germany until 1952, when he moved back to New York City. He was a graphic designer at the New York Times and later worked as an art director at L.W. Frohlich & Co. In 1963, Bill Martin, Jr. saw a poster of a red lobster that Carle had designed and asked him to illustrate Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, thus launching his freelance career. Among his many children's books are Dream Snow, Hello, Red Fox, The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, and Pancakes, Pancakes! His title The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse made Publisher's Weekly Best Seller List for 2011. His title Brown Bear Brown Bear What to You See? made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012. In 2015 he made The New Zealand Best Seller List with Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Eric Carle, beloved children's book author and illustrator, died on May 23, 2021. He was 91.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Nonsense indeed! A rabbit pulls a boy out of a hat, a mouse chases a cat, and a girl plays tennis with an apple instead of a ball. These are just a few of the goofy images readers will find in Carle's latest picture book. In rhyming text and surrealist illustrations, the book is full of Carle's distinct art featuring bright and colorfully textured images. Some figures will be instantly recognizable to readers, such as the yellow duck (10 Little Rubber Ducks) and the mama kangaroo (Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?), but with a fantastic twist; the rubber duck has human feet and the kangaroo is carrying a human child in her pouch.Children will love seeing everyday images turned on their heads and will delight in exploring these illustrations again and again. VERDICT A sure hit as a read-aloud and a definite purchase for picture book collections.-Amy Nolan, St. Joseph Public Library, St. Joseph, MI © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Carle delivers a carnival of pictorial and rhyming jokes, illustrated in chunky painted paper collage and dedicated to surrealist painter René Magritte and The Treachery of Images, with its famous jest, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (Carle previously explored Expressionism in The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse and abstract art in Friends). The first spread pictures a rabbit magician pulling a boy out of a hat: "Welcome friends!/ Don't be slow./ Step right up to/ The Nonsense Show!" Each spread stands alone, sometimes striking an apt silly note (a small gray mouse is seen holding a much larger cat by a leash) and sometimes falling flat when the rhymes do not scan or the jokes are middling ("Could a leopard/ Change his spot/ To a tiger-ish stripe?/ Probably not"). The funniest moments involve topsy-turvy situations, as when a lion ringmaster tames human acrobats or when a woman swings her racquet at a zooming green fruit: "What a funny-looking ball/ Thought the tennis ace/ And wound up/ With applesauce/ In her face." Despite a few hiccups, it's kid-pleasing silliness through and through. Ages 3-7. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.