Africa Calling, Nighttime Falling [Hardcover]

Dan Adlerman (Author), Daniel Adlerman (Author), Kimberly M. Adlerman (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

An African-American girl imagines herself in the jungles of Africa amongst lions, elephants, monkeys, and other animals.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This picture book starts off as a gallery of African animals seen in their natural habitat. Unusual artwork incorporates watercolors into a quasi-collage of dried leaves, flowers, herbs and spices. This creates an interesting range of textures and layers to serve as a setting, but watercolors of the animals themselves are less successful. They appear drab and overly simplified, neither particularly realistic nor dramatically stylized. An uninspired couplet introduces each animal ("From the highest point of the tallest tree,/ Monkey swings so gracefully") while a stilted chant calls attention to the creature's most striking attributes ("massive, stunning/ rhinoceros running"). But a surprise at the end undoes the reader's assumptions: the scenarios have been imagined by a girl tucked in bed, surrounded by an African jungle's worth of stuffed toys. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2?A sense of realism combines with the delights of fantasy in this charming picture book. The illustrations of animals in their African environments move from lions in a brilliant sunset on the plains; to a viper in the deepening desert dusk; to monkeys in the starry jungle's darkness; to the rhinoceros and stalking cheetah on the grasslands before showing a moonlit scene of a child at home, in bed, surrounded by her stuffed animals. The double-page pictures were created from a watercolor base with added collage layers of painted figures and leaves, stones, dried flowers, and twine. The use of collage communicates a world of fantasy on the edge of dreaming, at the same time that the concreteness of the materials used and the dimensionality created by varying distances from the background make this world seem very real. Some of the featured animals are stylized torn-paper figures, while others are realistically detailed. A simple rhyming text accompanies each illustration: "Suspicious of each passing stranger,/ Buffalo looks for signs of danger./ Cautiously eyeing/ Buffalos spying." With a theme reminiscent of Ann Jonas's The Quilt (Greenwillow, 1984), the author and illustrator have created a mysterious, nonthreatening animal world of a child's imagination.?Loretta Kreider Andrews, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879085984
• ISBN-13: 978-1879085985
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,573,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for every child's book collection, January 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Africa Calling, Nighttime Falling (Hardcover)

This lyrically penned and exquisitely illustrated story is sure to delight children from ages 3 to 60. The story is well developed and extremely well written and the illustrations are absolutely breath-taking...this book is a true work of art. I have purchased it for all my nieces, nephews, and other children I know, as well as grandparents and parents alike. Knowing you will enjoy this I encourage you to look at Kin Eagle's nursery rhymes..."It's Raining, It's Pouring" and "Hey Diddle Diddle".

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly one of a kind!, December 3, 2011

By 

Eboni J. Carter (ATLANTA, GA, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Africa Calling: Nighttime Falling (Paperback)

One of the most visually captivating books I've ever seen. The illustrators way of creating texture and depth, I don't think has ever been done before - certainly not in a children's book. They read this book at storytime at the public library and I ordered it the very same day! Highly recommend!!!